Thicker Than Water
by Chaltab
Summary: The Titans East thought they knew what they were getting into when they agreed to defend Steel City. But what if the town's worst enemy... is itself?
1. Blood Money

**Author's Note:** This story is set in the timeline of my other two Titans stories, _Legacy of the Tamaranian_ and _Colors_. This will not have a huge bearing on the story, though, so you do not have to read them to understand this story. Though, I would like you to, of course. References to things such as Speedy changing his name to Arsenal and an encounter with some aliens in Jump City park are nothing more than continuity tid-bits and unimportant to the plot of this story.

Also, this story, at least in planning, will be a bit darker and more mature than my other stories, which is why it has an M rating.

**

* * *

Teen Titans East** in  
THICKER THAN WATER

Part One: **Blood Money**

Brother Blood had been right. Everywhere, all around the cold, dark city, the stench of decay rested. It permeated the Pennsylvanian town, betraying a corruption far deeper than the five senses could perceive, something that ran to it's very core and choked and stifled it. Steel City, it was said, ranked with Gotham and Bludhaven among the most corrupt cities on the planet. And it was into this reality that five teenagers had been thrust, expected to bear the burden of a city that even the Justice League wouldn't bother touching.

Karen Beecher sighed at this, her mechanical wings fluttering slightly. As Bumblebee, she was in charge of the Titans East, and as much as she hated to admit it, the responsibility was too much for her at times.

Perhaps no man could bring her down, but a city? Different story. She smirked and turned, leaving the balcony and returning into Ops. Her father had always disapproved of this job, but he no longer tried to dissuade her from it. She was older than she looked, and at 19, the oldest of any of the youths that called themselves Titans.

Roy Harper, who had recently changed his hero moniker from 'Speedy' to the more threatening 'Arsenal' was using a simulated bow and arrow set to target practice on the massive screen in Ops.

The room was otherwise quiet and empty.

"How is it going, Roy," she asked.

"Could be better," he said. "I don't know what it was when we were fighting the Titans West under Blood's control, but I couldn't hit a thing. Did you see how many arrows I missed Robin with?"

Karen smirked. "It wasn't you, Roy. Blood's mental powers—they do something to your coordination. He turns down your abilities just incase you decide to rebel, and it takes a while to get them back."

Roy seemed to accept this, and nodded. "Still, it could get me in trouble. Did you see how that alien we fought in Jump City last week took me out? It only took a single misfire." After a moment, he asked, "Is Garth back from his patrol yet?"

Karen nodded. He refered to Aqualad, who had always simply said his name was Garth, no surname. "He came in complaining about some rude fish and then went to the crime lab with a bunch of cases. I don't know what he's up to."

"He's never been the most talkative. What is it with Atlanteans and having a martyr complex?"

"If you think he's bad now," Karen said, "your should have seen him when we both started working to take down Blood."

"Did you ever figure out what relation he has to Aquaman?" Roy asked.

"None that I can tell. Batman said—via Robin—that Aquaman has no idea who he is."

"Somehow, I doubt that," Roy said, and went back to shooting.

Karen moved away from Ops and made her way towards the elevator. Mas and Menos—or, as their real names were relayed to her, Miguel and Victor Toledo—were sleeping in their room in the north wing of the tower. They had given a lot lately, and it seemed that puberty was actually having some odd effects on their super speed, the most prominent being a pronounced fatigue after basic use. Another, more convenient side effect was the ability to maintain their individual Speed Force auras at a greater distance from their bodies, allowing themselves to move at super speeds when merely in proximity with each other rather than actually in contact. Bumblebee had made a point to post this detail on the official Titans East website; she hoped it would stem the tide of those infuriating incest rumors about the twins.

The elevator door opened and Karen entered and descended towards the crime lab. Upon arriving, she found Garth hunched over some lab equipment, running tests on something she couldn't see.

As she approached, she gasped in surprise… it was a fish!

"Aqualad, what ARE you doing? I thought fish were your pals."

He looked up at her with a glint of anger. "Bumblebee, please. No fish jokes today. Something is seriously wrong. The fish—they're angry. They say that there is something new in the water lately. Ever since Carmen Vasquez opened that new industrial plant by the river, fish have been becoming more aggressive, or worse, simply keeling over and dying."

Karen sighed. "Look, Garth, I know you're big on protecting the oceans, but Vasquez does have a permit for everything he's done so far."

"Everything he's done _on the records," _Garth said in a correcting tone. "I've been running tests…"

"And?"

"Some of the chemicals in these fish are illegal to even produce, let alone dump into public water."

That hit Karen and she felt her eyebrow rise. She had always assumed Vasquez wasn't entirely legit. Still, it was hard to make a case when someone with as much publicized bias as Aqualad, whom many even suspected of having an Atlantean political agenda. "In that case, the EPA will deal with it. This isn't really our field of expertise."

"You said yourself Vasquez—and who knows who else—have half the police in this town on their payroll," Aqualad shot back. "What's stopping him from doing the same with the EPA?"

Bumblebee narrowed her eyes at him. This was getting bothersome, not because Garth was wrong, but because he seemed on the edge, like he wasn't thinking clearly. There was an edge to his voice that made her wonder if he wouldn't try something rash. "I said _I_ _suspected_ that Vasquez was paying cops off. I don't have any proof of that yet, and neither do you. And accusing him is more likely to get us into trouble than to help out your friends."

Aqualad snapped and slammed his fist down on the table next to his small aquarium, causing the water to shake. Karen waited for him to calm down, not taking her eyes from him. When he had breathed heavily for a moment, he sighed and spoke again.

"Sorry. I'm on edge. I guess it was whatever was in the water." Garth looked at her stern gaze a moment and decided he should add, "Not that I expect you to believe that."

"I don't doubt what you're saying is true," she said, "I'm only saying that we need to go about investigating this in a more collected manner. Get your data ready and enter it into the computer. It's late. Get some rest, and we'll go over it tomorrow."

"You're right," Aqualad said. "This unitard is getting itchy anyway." He proceeded to clean up his work, preserving the dead fish by putting it in a cryogenic chamber, then fed the fish in his aquarium, conversing with them telepathically for a moment. He left the lab and Bumblebee, and proceeded to bed.

Karen watched him leave, shut down the equipment and followed.

Back in the relative comfort and privacy of her room, Karen removed the yellow and black shirt striped like her super heroic namesake, and then unfastened the super-light metal harness that strapped her wings and shrinking mechanism to her body, the tiny neuro-fibers that hardwired it to her nervous system sliding out. She placed the shirt in the automated laundry chute, and set the mechanism that gave her her powers on its recharge stand—underneath she only wore a simple black lace bra that did little to add to or detract from her already pronounced figure.

But as she studied herself in the mirror, she was immediately struck by a realization so obvious that she wondered why it hadn't occurred to her before: Those huge balled-up pigtail… _things_ looked utterly ridiculous. They had to go!

"No wonder criminals tend to laugh at me," she said dryly.

Karen finished undressing and pulled on a silk nightgown her father had given her, and undid the ball-pig-tail things for the last time. She's see about getting a haircut or a new style tomorrow, she promised herself as she lay down. But before she could decide on a new look, she had drifted off to sleep.

**oooo**

For some, the night wasn't so restful.

Far on the other side of Steel City, a man sat, obscured by the darkness of the room he resided in. Carmen Vasquez was a fool, he decided. Dumping the experimental toxins into the water and hoping he could pay of the EPA agent was _not_ an effective way to test volatile compounds.

What would the fish do with it anyway? Terrorize the guppies?

The man sighed bearing his teeth—most of which were purest white save for one golden tooth on the top left side of his mouth that flickered in the only light in the room—that of the monitor he studied intently..

The screen showed images from the underwater security cameras, images of the Atlantean, the one who dared call himself a Titan and fight 'crime'. What a sham. And yet the man was worried. This aqua kid may have been naïve, but he could still cause trouble. If the samples he collected were examined with care…

Vasquez would have to be punished eventually. But _this?_

_  
_This required immediate attention.

The man in the darkness removed a cell phone and dialed a number. And on the other end, his contact answered. "Good evening," he said, his voice smooth and deep, "Vasquez' foolish blunder may cost us the contract…. No. I don't want him eliminated. Not yet; he may yet be useful. But I do have a target for you, my friend—one I'm willing to pay a very high price for."

The murmuring voice on the other end of the line picked up. A feral grin stretched across the man's face, his golden tooth shining in the light of the monitor's image.

"They call him, 'Aqualad.'"

**oooo**

The Titans East understandably picked up many of their practices and habits from the original five, and one such habit was going out to eat in public while still in full hero gear.

And though Garth didn't really have a secret identity, and Mas and Menos were too fast to be caught anyway, Roy most of all felt very uncomfortable in doing so. Sure, he was good distance from home in Star City, but what if he was recognized regardless?

Not that anyone he knew would vacation to a dump like Steel City.

The quintet of Titans had decided eventually on a fancy Japanese restaurant on the south side of town…

"_Ay_!" exclaimed Menos loudly, drawing the attention of the restaurants other patrons. "_Que malo!"_

"_Si, hermano_," replied Mas. "_Y Entonces, nos dijo, 'Pero… Pero… TODOS SOMOS TOLEDOS!_'"

At this, Menos burst into a fit of laughter, drawing more unwanted attention. Roy could feel his skin turning red, and he swore he saw a vein throb on Karen's forehead.

"Would you two shut your big mouths!" she barked at them. "_Silencio_!"

Mas and Menos shut up and stared in fear and apology at Bumblebee for a moment, and then continued eating.

After a while, Aqualad spoke. "So, Bee. What's with the new hair style?"

Roy had also noticed she had donned a different hairstyle today; it was now tied back in a pony-tail, but hadn't really thought much of it. Girls changed their hairstyles all the time.

"Just a personal thing," she replied.

"_Su pelo es bonito_," said Mas, drawing a few raised eyebrows.

"_Sutil,_" Menos said sarcastically, smirking at his brother. Mas sweatdropped.

Suddenly, a loud screeching of car tires rang outside, followed by the shrill scream of a pedestrian… Then the world went white and the wall exploded inward…

Roy rolled to his feet in a crouched position as soon as he could think again, and drew his bow and arrow and pointed it at the gaping gash in the wall. He gritted his teeth in anger when he saw a waiter with a blood stained shirt face down in the carpet in front of him, two glasses of Mountain Dew pouring their contents on the carpet. Gradually, his ears stopped ringing, and he heard the screams of the other patrons.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the smoke clearing and the rest of his team getting up. Mas and Menos were no worse for the wear, but they were livid both, and Aqualad stared in shocked anger at the dying fish from the destroyed aquarium and at the waiter the blast had killed. It occurred to him that it was amazing they'd even gotten Garth to come to a restaurant that served sushi.

Bumblebee wiped a small cut on her left arm clean and stuck a special insta-bandage her father had developed on the wound. She'd have time to heal later, after whatever did this was brought to justice, Roy knew. He was just thankful now for Ollie and all his lectures on the importance of armor—he'd felt a piece of shrapnel hit him hard in the chest through the armor, and knew it would have done worse otherwise.

"Titans, report," Bumblebee barked, her eyes busy scanning through the clearing smoke for a follow up attack.

"Fine and mad as Poseidon," Aqualad snarled.

"_Somos ilesos_," Mas y Menos said in unison.

"Same here," said Roy. He ached a bit, but nothing serious.

"Then let's find out who did this and—" Karen was cut off when a crossbow bolt streaked right past her head and slammed into the wood of the booth divider behind her. The Titans glanced at the projectile long enough to realize…

'_bomb'_

**_BOOOOM!_**

A second explosion rocked the restaurant, and the fleeing patrons and pedestrians began to flee all the faster.

Still, it wasn't seven times the speed of sound, which was the approximate speed that Miguel and Victor Toledo could run.

Mas and Menos had the Titans out of the building in the fraction of the second it took for them to see the bomb and react to it, and the Titans would let them know how thankful they were for it.

Later.

Because once the were out of the building, they were immediately confronted by their attacker..

"You guys really _are_ good," an infectious voice—the kind that makes you skin crawl just hearing it—said to them. Then he appeared, and the Titans could do nothing but facevault.

He had fallen from the roof a building across the square from the restaurant, and was dressed in a loose black tunic and long pants. The tunic was open slightly at the top, revealing a bullet resistant vest underneath. Across the tunic he wore what appeared to be a bandolier… of piano keys.

His mask/helmet covered his head and his face down to his nose, his eyes a pair of blank black goggles, and his helmet had a crest of two conjoined 8-Balls on it.

"Who are you supposed to be?" Arsenal barked. "The Pianist?"

"Hardly," the man said.

"Let me guess," Bumblebee tried, "You're just 'Piano-Man."

No verbal reply, but a knife flicked out with amazing speed and clipped Karen's face so closely that she didn't even feel the contact before the blood started to run. The Titans gasped at this.

"The call me Crazy-88," the man said. "I'm here to kill Aqualad. And anyone who gets in my way, of course. Let me have your fishy friend and the rest of you will be left alone."

"After what you did to that restaurant!" Roy blurted.

"_Eres loco_!" Mas y Menos finished.

"Who would want me dead?" Aqualad asked.

"Doesn't matter." Bumblebee hovered above the area drawing her stingers. This in turn drew a smirk from Crazy-88. "You saw that man in the restaurant, Titans. This psycho is going down."

"Just try me," he said, drawing knives from his belt.

"Titans, TOGETHER!" Bumblebee barked. And forward they charged.

* * *

Wow. This first chapter was dissapointingly short, but this seems like a good place to end it for now. This story may be slow-going since I have so many other projects, but hey, it might come faster. Who knows? 


	2. Bad Blood

**Thicker Than Water**  
Part Two: Bad Blood

Evening clouds had settled over the square outside the ravaged restaurant, and sirens responding to the carnage could be heard in the distance. But the culprit was in plain sight, and the Titans had to bring him down.

As the heroes ran forward, Crazy-88 backpedaled, drawing a pair of Uzis from his legs and opening fire. The Titans dove away from the fire, and Arsenal returned fire with his bow, the arrows streaking by as Crazy-88 dodged away. A blast of icy water from the lake knocked the assassin off his feet, but he quickly recovered, flipping over in an acrobatic escape. Suddenly, Crazy-88 finally showed a bit of surprise when Bumblebee suddenly appeared next to him—she had scaled herself down to get close, so small she had almost gotten lost. But now she was close, and immediately used her leverage to disarm the assassin, jerking his Uzis out of his hands. Roy covered her by quickly rolling forward to kick them into the bay.

Aqualad charged then, grabbing Crazy-88 and smashing his fist into his face. The Atlantean youth's strength must have done a lot more damage to the assassin than he let on—either that or this guy wasn't a normal human. "I demand to know who wants me dead!" Garth raged.

"Sorry kid," Crazy-88 said. "If I told you that, they'd want me dead too."

Aqualad snarled. "It's Vasquez, isn't it," more of a statement than a question.

Crazy-88's eyes flicked surprise, but it quickly turned to a grin. "You wish," he said. Suddenly, a knife ejected from a slot under his wrist and he reversed the momentum, stepping forward and slicing Aqualad across the stomach and cutting a line in his unitard and his skin underneath, then lunging to put the knife through his throat. Despite his pain, Garth rolled out of the way and blasted both his wound (to clean it off) and the assassin with jets of water. This was followed up by a double blast from Bumblebee.

Arsenal capped the attack off with a boxing glove arrow that slammed into Crazy's chest and sent him flying across the square into a tin storage building near the docks. The Titans gathered, and Roy helped the still-bleeding Aqualad to stand.

"Stay sharp, don't rush him," Karen ordered.

"He's too good," Roy commented.

Crazy-88 reached for one of the piano-key sections on his bandoleer and removed it, pressing the black key on top of the white one. It flashed, and suddenly became a pistol.

"NO!" Roy blurted, diving to the ground to cover Garth, either not remembering or not caring he had a massive gash across his torso. Bumblebee got small…

Without warning and without prudence or caution, Mas y Menos blasted forward, their non–contiguous burst of super speed catching Crazy-88 off guard for a split second. The slammed into him, knocking him through the storage building's wall, then out a window on the backside. Their furious attack extended onto the street…

"_PATADA DEL FUEGO!"_ the shouted, jumping into the air and performing a spinning drill kick.

The assassin went flying backwards into a parked car, cracking the windshield and rolling on over the hood to come to a rest behind the trunk. He quickly staggered to his feet while the cyclone twins recovered, and it was plain that his left leg was broken.

Then, the Titans gasped when he simply pressed the keys on his chest in a certain order, and suddenly, the microfibers that ran throughout the suit suddenly constricted, forcing his leg back together and applying insane amounts of pressure to keep it together, a motion that looked much like Marty McFly's instant-fit shoes in Back to the Future II.

And the assassin just gritted his teeth as it happened.

"I really wish those kids hadn't forced me to do that," he shouted, looking at Aqualad. "I'm going to add something like that to the list of things I'm going to do to you."

Suddenly, and to the complete surprise of the Titans, the assassin dashed forward over the cars—yes, dashed! Even though his leg had just been broken, reset, and was now only held together by nothing more than the tension in his costume, he somehow ran on it.

While on top of the car, he withdrew another weapon from his bandoleer, though the Titans couldn't tell what it was. The pistol was still in his other hand, amazingly. And as he collided with the two fatigued Speed Force users, he gained a sudden burst of speed as well, for the device he had just removed from his bandoleer was a temporal distortion device, one that let him slow down time around him. Technologically induced bullet time, for the most apt description.

Crazy dodged up and down, far too fast for Mas and Menos to hit him, for not only could he move at super speed, but see and think at super speed as well, so he easily manipulated the brothers into a position advantageous to him, and then delivered two powerful punches to their abdomens to blast them away.

Then, just to add insult to injury, he used his pistol as they flew away from him in slow motion, and blasted Mas's kneecap out, then turned and did the same to Menos. As the effects of the device wore off, Mas y Menos could still be heard screaming as they went flying in opposite directions away from the site of the scuffle.

As time returned to normal, Crazy-88 turned back to the Titans. "Dr. Wataki's technology isn't cheap, even when he's not the one selling it," he told them. "Now you see, I must finish this contract just to make all that money I spent on that thing worthwhile."

"No," Karen said emphatically, even as Arsenal and a bandaged Garth stood behind her.

Crazy-88 stared the Titans East down, and at Bumblebee's urging, the Titans did the same back. Neither side would make another move until the other did. With Mas and Menos out of commission indefinitely, it would be up to the three eldest to put this psycho in his place. Bumblebee realized that since Mas and Menos required each other for their powers, they were essentially one hero. And counting them as such, only half their team had actual powers.

She had her weapons and shrink suit; Arsenal had his arrows…

But would tech and skill be enough against someone like this guy? He clearly knew what he was doing. A ruthless killing machine, probably trained to take out metahumans, and was probably one himself. Bumblebee nodded to her right, and Aqualad began to step around towards Crazy-88's flank. She nodded left, and Arsenal also began moving towards the opposite flank. Crazy-88 didn't react to this at all, at least not visibly.

And somehow, Aqualad's telepathic communication reached them, despite the fact that Karen and Roy weren't fish.

_Go for his leg,_ he said.

**0000**

Far on the other side of Steel City, the golden-toothed man paced back and forth across a gangplank, puffing on his cigar. Somehow, it seemed shadows still obscured him even in this new setting.

"You're an idiot," he berated at the shorter man with him, who had slightly Hispanic features. "You dump illegal chemicals into the lake and expect nobody to notice? Who raised you? Forrest Gump?" His voice was cold and mocking, but unlike the previous night, the anger was not restrained.

"Can't we just pay off the EPA. It's not like we got a shortage of money."

"One," said the man, "some EPA agents are actually _honest._ They have a code of _ethics_ and won't take our bribes. Two, we shouldn't even be in this mess. You should have waited till my company was ready. You've forced my hand."

Vasquez turned, his eyes flashing anger at the insults. "What do you mean?"

"Merger. I'm going to buy your company, take direct control, and you will be placed elsewhere."

"What?" Vasquez blurted, spinning around to see the shadowy man's sinister eyes glowing back at him from the shadows. His teeth were gritted in frustration, his gold one reflecting the ambient light. "You can't do that!"

"It will happen, or you will wind up face down in a gutter," the man said.

Vasquez gulped. "Alright. What's the schedule for the merger?"

The shadowed man's face twisted into a wicked grin. "I'll have my secretary fax it to you tomorrow," he said. As he left, he through over his shoulder, "And if you try to run, you lose what position I deem to give you. If you launder any money before you try to run, you die. Am I understood?"

Vasquez nodded. "Thank you, sir."

By the time Vasquez was alone, his shirt was drenched in sweat.

0000

Bumblebee fired her weapon at Crazy-88, but he flipped out of the way and fired a round from his pistol at her, though she quickly shrank to a smaller size to increase her chances of not getting shot.

Aqualad ignored the pain from his wound and rushed the guy while distracted, flooring him with a punch. Unfortunately, the assassin did a handspring while falling and landed on his feet. He leveled the gun at Garth only to have it blown out of his hand by a magnetic arrow from Arsenal's bow.

Garth used the sudden state of disarmament to jump forward and plant a kick into the assassin's injured leg. Crazy-88 grunted in pain, and in an burst of unthinking rage whirled his right fist around into Garth's face, driving the Atlantean back. Then Crazy-88 pressed a button on the edge of his glove and a device on his wrist emitted a flash of extremely bright light

Bumblebee fired at the assassin again, as he dodged around, somehow anticipating her shots and getting out of the way, only to roll close and kick her in the face.

Arsenal tagged in, ramming the assassin with his shoulder and knocking him rolling across the pathway in front of the storage building where he landed in front of the pier.

Aqualad followed up by jumping on top of the building and using his water controlling powers to send water from the lake up. The torrents slammed into the assassin and forced him to retaliate, drawing another knife from his arsenal and flicking it up at Aqualad. Garth dived off the building but the knife hit him in the side at an angle, running down it and cutting a shallow ditch vertically across his ribcage. Garth reacted to the pain with a stifled scream and landed on the ground hard, thankfully managing to not land on the first gash still seeping blood on his torso...

The moon went behind the clouds, cutting the amount of light in half.

Bumblebee charged, punching with her bladed stingers, but the assassin retaliated by dodging away, then blocking, and then throwing Bumblebee over his shoulders into a second storage building on the far side... Arsenal got up, and realizing his bow was broken, stood.

"You think you're tough, then fight without weapons," he taunted, taking a swing at the assassin. Crazy-88 responded by blocking the punch and twisting Roy's arm into a lock.

Roy applied an escape technique quickly, trying to reverse the lock, but Crazy-88 smashed a fist out into his face, then backhanded the other side, finishing off with a jab to the throat... Roy realized the mercenary could have just killed him...

"I hope that hurt. Now if you'll leave me alone, I'll kill your friend and be gone."

"NO!" Roy blurted, sweeping out the assassin's leg. He and Garth may have disagreed on just about everything, but so did he and Green Arrow. And he still thought of Oliver Queen as his surrogate father, even if they no longer worked together.

Crazy-88 fell to the ground, hard on his back, but quickly rolled over and kicked Arsenal's knee. Roy staggered forward, and the assassin smashed the other foot into his face, then through himself up with his legs and began drilling Roy's chest with a series of blows. Pain wracked his body, but finally, he caught a break and deflected an attack, then pistoned a fist out into the assassin's throat in retaliation.

"You just can't take a hint," the assassin said, his voice a low raspy growl—he could barely speak.

Roy growled loudly, using his right hand to grab the emergency combat knife from its slot on his leg. He jabbed it forward, towards the assassin, trying to puncture his throat—the only effective exposed skin on his body.

But the assassin dodged the strike, then slammed his fists in a scissors strike on Roy's arm, dislocating the elbow. A burst of pain shot up Roy's arm, forcing him to drop the knife, and it only got worse when the assassin smashed him in the head with the handle of the knife, then reversed into another joint lock and dislocated Roy's shoulder.

Roy gritted his teeth, the inside of his domino mask welling up with involuntary tears. He screamed out again as more pain shot up his arm when Crazy-88 lifted him up by the dislocated shoulder. Agony ravaged Roy's consciousness, and he thought he would black out...  
But he didn't.

Finally, Crazy-88 spoke. "I told you once, kid, I don't need to kill you to get paid. But if you keep this up, you'll leave me no choice."

When Roy said nothing, he threw him up a few inches then drove a powerful kick into his back. Roy went flying across towards the edge of the short pier that stretched out into the lake, and smashed his face into a crate...

_No! Can't black out... something has to stop him..._

He rolled over, and as if by miracle, he saw the pistol that the assassin had dropped earlier... grabbing it in his left hand, he gradually dragged him and his unusable left hand around so that he could see the assassin...

Bumblebee was unleashing everything she had on him, but he was fighting her back with Roy's knife and his fists alone... Crazy-88 blocked a swipe from her stinger and then whirled a fist down and drove it into her exposed abdomen. "Wearing a tube top to a knife fight," Crazy-88 said. "Bad decision."

Suddenly he saw Roy aiming the gun at him, and quickly grabbed Karen, locking her arms behind her and cutting all four wings off near the base, as well as the wires that controlled her shrinking mechanism. In an inhumanly fast motion he flicked the knife up her abdomen and twisted it into a position where it was pointed at her neck. She couldn't struggle, though, as he applied his lock in a way that hit pressure points all along her body, resulting in a drain off all the energy from Karen's body...

Roy knew, cause he had seen something similar done to Ollie before by the assassin Lady Shiva.

And worse, he had cut a line up the front and back of her shirt... and it fell off, exposing the shrink-mechanism and wing strap. Then that fell off too, leaving Karen in nothing but her black lace bra, the chill night wind like daggers on her skin...

He had to cut the entire length and depth of the shirt and the leather straps without digging into her skin or cutting her bra too... But that kind of precision was impossible, wasn't it!

"One more move and I slit her throat!" Crazy-88 said. "Throw the gun into the water!"

Roy narrowed his shaking hand, but he couldn't get a clear shot...

"DO IT OR SHE DIES!" the assassin screamed as he began slowly making his wait to Aqualad... If Karen was just out of the way...

Then, he realized he only had one chance to save Bumblebee, and he didn't relish the thought...

"Just shoot him!" Karen yelled.

"Shut up!" he barked at her, then turned to Roy. "Not even you're mentor could make a shot like this, kid! You'll kill your friend!"

That settled it. There was only one viable target at this point. Roy used his dislocated arm, despite the pain, to prop himself up just enough. And the pain, oddly, only sharpened his mind and his eye as he leveled the pistol and fired.

The round exploded out and slammed into the assassin's wrist, blowing his right hand clean off. Blood splattered on Karen as she used the opportunity to shrug him off, elbowing the assassin in the stomach. She dived out of the way as Roy fired again, standing up and unloading his clip, even as the assassin charged at him. half the bullets hit his piano-key bandoleer.

One, three, eight shots and Crazy-88 still didn't go down. The last bullet reflected off his helmet off into the water, but the assassin kept running, and Roy used his less injured leg and slammed his foot into the assassin's chest, sending another jolt of pain through his dislocated arm...

But the assassin went down, crashing into a pile of crates.

Arsenal walked forward cautiously, the empty gun raised to use as a blunt weapon if Crazy-88 defied death again..

But when he got there, the mercenary lay, his chest covered in blood from the gunshots; he was still alive, but barely. Gradually, his breaths got shallower and shallower, his eyes closed, and finally, he breathed his last...

**0000**

It took a while, but eventually, the five Titans East were able to get back together again. Mas y Menos kneecaps were completely destroyed, and had to be replaced with artificial ones. And even so, they wouldn't be able to run for a while, which meant two of their members were sidelined from the get go. Bumblebee's wounds were mostly negligible, and she only needed an aspirin, but Garth's gashes required stitches and the imperative that he take it easy for a while.

In Roy's case, the ultimate damage of his dislocations was probably less than the damage he had done to the eardrums of the doctors that repaired them. Nonetheless, pretty much the entirety of his right arm and shoulder was placed in a bandage to make sure it moved as little as possible.

That night, the Titans East gathered in their ops room, and discussed the fight.

"This was a close one, Titans," Bumblebee said. "We could have been killed so many different times..."

"Notice that he comes closest to killing you and me," Roy said, "even though his target was Garth."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Garth blurted. "Are you implying—"

"No!" Roy said, suddenly aghast. "I didn't mean to imply anything, except that fate has a sense of irony."

"Calm down," Karen reprimanded, hugging her new shirt tightly. "We all had close calls, and if he had meant to kill us, we wouldn't have lived. It's almost like this was a wake up call."

"You think it was Vasquez too, then?" Garth asked. "The assassin said that it wasn't, that it was someone worse..."

"Vasquez is scum," Roy said, "but he's also an idiot. He could be easily manipulated by someone else. But who else is there in this city besides Collins, Wayne, and Alva Industries?"

Garth thought a moment. "Of those two, only Wayne Enterprises strikes me as wholly legitimate, even if the owner is a lazy good-for-nothing playboy. But Vasquez is smaller than a plankton compared to them. It's someone closer."

Karen sighed. "We'll figure this out, but we need more clues. It's obvious Mas and Menos won't be in the game for a few weeks, even if they heal at super speed every chance they get. So we are understaffed and only two of us have actual powers..."

"And I had to use a gun to kill a man tonight," Roy said absently. "Green Arrow is going to be so angry with me... I can't help but think I should be angry at myself..."

"You had to do what you had to do, Roy," Karen said. "I'm realizing more and more this is a hard town. You might have to start carrying firearms full time, expand that arsenal you're named after."

Roy's jaw dropped. "You can't be serious."

"I'm dead serious. I'm going to see about my dad and professor Palmer developing me some new better armor for my replacement costume. I have a back-up like the original, of course..."

"But you don't think it's enough," Roy finished. "And anymore, I'm not sure I know what is..."

**0000**

"This is a disaster!" cried Vasquez as he watched the news report. "Aqualad is still alive and now he KNOWS that we know he's been snooping."

The shadowed man's sinister voice came over the speaker phone on the desk behind Vasquez. "No, even if the assassin failed, we got the message out. They are no longer welcome in _my_ city."

Vasquez sighed. "With all due respect, sir, you don't understand these metahuman crime fighters. The more adversity you through at them, the more they throw back at you. They don't cut and run no matter what you do. The only way to get rid of them is to kill them."

"We'll see," said the voice on the speaker phone. "We'll see."


	3. Blood Letting

_Sorry it has been so long since last chapter. I've been busy with lots of stuff. I'd love feedback, especially on the new female characters that I've introduced this chapter. And I apologize ahead of time for another cliffhanger ending..._

**

* * *

Thicker Than Water  
Chapter Three**

The next few weeks, unfortunately, included a lot of recovery time. Bumblebee was relatively uninjured, and Aqualad's cuts healed fairly quickly, but Arsenal's arm was dislocated _and _fractured, and Mas y Menos had their left and right kneecaps respectively completely destroyed.

So, heeding Karen's advice, Roy had added a duo of handguns, one that fired rubber and trick bullets and one that fired projectiles of a more lethal variety, custom ordered using the large funds that Green Arrow had allotted him before they had parted ways. If the criminals wanted to make it war—especially Vasquez—then war it would be.

The Titans East could only hope that this war wouldn't claim any more civilian casualties.

"Are you sure you're going to be alright?" Roy asked the twins, both lying in twin hospital beds in the medical room of the East T-Tower, their proximity activating their enhanced metabolism. This would make their legs would heal more quickly around their new artificial kneecaps.

"_Si," _said Miguel. "_Cuantas veces lo debemos decir?"_

"Fine," Roy said with a shrug. "Suit yourselves. If you need anything, the automated service robot will get it for you."

At this moment, Karen and Garth walked in, Karen wearing a brand new armor that he r father and Ray Palmer had designed. It would protect her from firearms, most lasers, and protect her identity a lot better too. Better yet, it used some new technology that Robin and Cyborg had reverse-engineered from Professor Chang so that Karen could activate the armor and become Bumblebee at the press of a button.

"_Ay, gracias," _Victor intoned timidly as the three eldest Titans East left the hospital. "_Y adios."_

Bumblebee and the guys moved down the hall until reaching the elevator, and took it down to the T-Boat, which was the quickest way to the city from their perch at the bottom of the cliff.

"What is the situation?" Garth asked, scratching at his chest, where the deepest of the cuts was still healing.

"Word is that a top-notch assassin has arrived somewhere in Steel City," Karen said. "The target, as far as the proverbial buzz says, isn't us. But they may be looking to assassinate rival crime lords."

"And we should care because?" Roy asked with a snort.

"Because," said Karen, "innocents could get caught in the crossfire. You know that."

Roy sighed. "Yeah, I guess I did. What if it's someone really big?" he asked. "Like… Slade, or Deadshot."

"Slade is dead. Deadshot is in prison," Bumblebee said evenly.

"In this world, neither incarceration nor termination seems to stop villains for long," Aqualad pointed out. "Remember Solomon Grundy?"

Karen shuddered. _Him_ she couldn't forget The Justice League had lost track of Grundy one day, and it had ended up being Aqualad and Bumblebee—perhaps the two least qualified heroes on the planet—who'd had to hold him off until the Justice League got there. That had been back before the League had had teleporters in their satellite, before Titans East had even formed, and just after she had ended her undercover mission in Blood's Hive Academy.

She had been far too green then, and it had almost gotten her killed.

"Yeah," she said at last. "I remember." Bumblebee walked over to the control panel and opened up the door, while simultaneously activating the security systems on full bore. Nothing was getting in the Tower alive.

The top of the boat slid open and the Titans got in, then blasted out onto the cold waters of Lake Erie….

**

* * *

**

It had been by sheer coincidence that Arsenal had landed on the roof he did when he did. That when being the same time his communicator flashed with a red light, indicating that a silent alarm had been set off. What was so unlikely was that a quick check of the GPS built into his communicator screen told him it was the very building he was on top of…

"What luck," Roy said, looking down to see a masked thug with a crowbar setting aside a glass panel to let himself and another, smaller thug into the jewelry store below. "Couple of skulls to crack, couple of bones to break, names to take." Roy strapped a special drop cord to his boots, one designed for this sort of thing, and then, waited a few minutes, then jumped off the building and fell until he was hanging upside down in the shadows just to the side of the where the building's awning would have been if it hadn't been missing.

The thugs came out, the larger one holding onto a tote bag that was obviously loaded, undoubtedly with cash and/or stolen diamonds.

"Dear sir or madam," Roy announced loudly, projecting his voice with his uninjured hand so that they couldn't tell where it was coming from. "Did you know that stealing has been outlawed in this country since the year 1776? It's probably been even longer than that, but I was always lousy at history. So just kindly drop the tote bag and surrender."

The smaller thug raised his crowbar even as the bigger one drew a small pistol from his side.

"Wrong answer," Roy whispered, grabbing his rubber-firing pistol from his own belt and squeezing the trigger. **_KRAKOW!_** The bullet lanced out and slammed into the big thug's wrist with a loud crack, causing him to drop the gun.

The small thug turned and swung at Roy, who must have resembled a piñata to the criminal. But with a **BLAM!** Roy shot him in the wrist as well, and the crow bar clattered to the ground as he grabbed his wrist in pain. Roy quickly curled up and shot the drop cord where it branched out to both his feet, and fell to the ground, landing upright, and immediately kicking the thugs' gun into the nearby storm drain.

But the big thug managed to get the crowbar and swung it at him. Roy dodged with a duck and swept the thug's legs out from under him, then stepped away from the small thug's punch, and slammed the handgun into his face—he had already activated the safety—causing the thug to recoil.

But Big was back up again now, and swung the crowbar at Arsenal again. Roy backflipped away from the attack, switched the safety off and unloaded three rounds into the thug's chest. Even rubber bullets traveling at a velocity like that hurt like crazy, and the thug swore as he tumbled backward and crashed on top of the smaller thug with a thud, bringing them both to the ground.

"That was weak, guys" Roy said. "You got beat by a minor—and with my good arm in a sling!"

The smaller thief told Roy what he could go do to himself, and the Titan resisted the urge to cap him in the forehead for saying it.

"No thanks," he said. "though I'm sure you'll learn to love stuff like that in prison."

Roy waited near the thugs until the alarm drew the attention of the Steel City police, at which point, Roy took his leave. Still, he watched from the rooftop across the street. Two officers got out of the squad car, and Roy observed them talking with the officer for a bit…

And then almost blew his cover when he saw the smaller thug reach into the tote bag and pull out a wad of money, which he handed the older officer. Who, being the generous fellow he was, gave a portion of it to the younger officer, and then pocketed the rest.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Roy forced himself not to shout. "Stupid pieces of…"

Then, his communicator beeped, cutting him off. He got it out, even as he watched the two criminals get up and walk away, and then the corrupt officers do the same.

"Unbelievable," he said.

"What is?" Aqualad asked from the communicator.

"I'll tell you later," Roy said. "What's up?"

"Nothing good," Karen cut in, her face filling half the screen now. "We have reports that multiple screams were heard coming from the Golden Buffet in Chinatown."

"Oh no…"

"Took the words out of my mouth.. Aqualad and I are already _en rout_.." Karen said. "Head that way Arsenal. We'll wait on you."

"It's a good thing for you I'm not far from Chinatown. Arsenal out."

**

* * *

**

It took him about twenty minutes, but Arsenal got there before Garth and Karen got too bored. The Golden Buffet was a well-known front for a world-renowned Chinese crime family, but unfortunately, this well known fact couldn't easily be proven. Most of those who had tried ended up dead.

Now it seemed like somebody had finally been kind enough to return the favor. Even as Roy landed outside the buffet, he could immediately smell blood. And the look on Karen and Garth's face told him that he wouldn't like what he found…

They were standing at the back entrance, Garth facing outward and Karen inside. But she was clearly trying not to look at the ground…

"How bad is it?" Roy asked, approaching slowly…

"I don't know," Karen said. "we haven't gone in there yet. But to give you a preview of what to expect, a body with its arms sheered off and throat slit open fell out when I opened the back door."

Roy looked at the door, and saw that it had taken a stinger zap to break whatever had sealed it, from the distinctive burn marks.

"Where is that body?" Roy asked…

"Garth pushed it back inside for me and then we waited for you." Karen hovered away from the door and landed beside him. "Arsenal, this happened within the last 25 minutes. Those screams were the _death _screams themselves…"

Garth spoke now. "The body I moved was still warm when I touched it. And we haven't seen anyone leave…"

"What about the windows?" Roy asked.

"Nothing," Karen said. "Granted, we don't know how soon after the killer was finished that we arrived, but…"

"If there is any possibility that whoever did this is still in there, we have to be deadly serious. Let's go."

**

* * *

**

The three Titans East made their way through the building cautiously, checking every corridor and door as they went. It didn't take long, because it was a rather small place internally, except for the dining area, which was deserted. No bodies there—all the patrons had either fled, or left long before the violence had begun. Unfortunately, it had started to rain outside by the time they were finished with the search…

The small building contained a total of twenty-seven dead bodies, three of them without heads. Blood stained almost every inch of the floor, and was splattered across the walls. It was a scene that made Roy sick to his stomach, and Karen even more so. Oddly, there were very few bloody footprints…

The only consolation he'd had was that every body they had found bore the mark of the Chinese crime organization Great Wall on their ankles. "Couldn't have happened to better people," Arsenal said.

"Scum or not," Karen said as the entered the back of the kitchen, the place where they had entered, "murder is murder. We need to find who did this."

It would have taken unnatural stealth for someone to be able to sneak out or in noiselessly and without making a trail in the pools of blood while they were scanning the scant collection of other rooms in the restaurant, so what happened next surprised everyone greatly.

"Sshh…" Aqualad said… "I sense something…"

"Sensed something? You mean like a fish?"

Aqualad glared at Arsenal, and took another step forward, looking up at an air-conditioning vent across the ceiling…

"What?" Karen whispered.

Garth looked back at her, and the look in his eyes said it all…

Karen aimed her stingers at the vent, and Roy stood underneath the closed vent, the only nearby point of egress for whoever or whatever was inside that vent…

If it was the murderer… They'd be ready. They would it with everything thing they had, and ask questions later.

Suddenly, whatever was in the vent whimpered…

"Come out now!" Karen cried. "We will not attack you unless you give us reason to!"

Suddenly, the metal began banging, a sound of utter panic, struggling against a frenzied fear. Karen heard the creature inside scramble her way and fired two concentrated stinger bolts upward through the metal of the vent. Immediately whatever was inside turned and scrambled the other way, clumsily banging on the metal… Until it came to the grate that covered the vent…

And caused it to buckle open, having not been screwed up properly…

Out tumbled the last thing anyone expected…

Not an assassin or a horrible monster, but just a little girl…

Well, little wasn't exactly the right word. She looked to be in her late teens, about Arsenal's age. She was clearly of Asian descent, and had black hair. That was about all Karen could take en before a flurry of slaps and kicks assaulted her, driving her back. Frantic, panicked screams and incoherent babble exploded from the girl's distraught vocal cords…

Then Roy fired a warning shot out the door with his pistol and the girl immediately stopped her futile assault on Karen and curled up in a fetal position and began to sob… "Please, please don't kill me! I'm sorry! I don't know what I've done, but I'm sorry!"

"Calm down!" shouted Aqualad, holding out both his hands in order to hold both Arsenal and Bumblebee off. "Stop…"

"Leave me alone!" the girl shouted.

"We're here to help," Aqualad said, projecting all the confidence he could muster telepathically. Man, he wished he could speak better with those that weren't fish. But it was the best he could do for now… He had to try.

"Calm down," he said again, "please?" Garth flashed her the most endearing, sickeningly handsome bishi-smile he could muster, and it seemed to have a very calming effect on the girl's nerves…

Until she saw the bodies. And the blood…

Then she panicked again, and rushed out of the shop, nearly bowling Aqualad over. Twenty feet from the door, she collapsed on the ground, and threw up… and then there was a calm, like the calm before the storm…

The three Titans East rushed out, and stared down at the young woman—she was their age, and having witnessed such a horror first hand…

"Should we…?" Aqualad trailed off…

"I'll try my best," Karen said…

She stepped forward tentatively, hoping not to startle the girl. For the briefest second, it crossed her mind that the girl was the killer. But even the greatest of actors could not fake distress that intense. And the girl had been far too awful a fighter earlier to have killed anyone… And the only blood on her was that on her shoes, which she had acquired running out of the building. There was no way she could have avoided all that blood spray—it was too much of a mess for the purveyor of the murders to not be drenched.

"Um," Bumblebee said stupidly… "Are you okay?"

"They killed them… All of them… I saw it…"

"Who?" Karen asked… "Who killed them…"

The girl began to cry again, and then finally said, "I don't know… They were like shadows… Men in black. It was like they turned into shadows and started cutting people apart…. I ran… I hid in the vent and the didn't see me…"

"Are you a member of the Great Wall crime organization?" Karen asked…

"No," she said with a sob. "I was just hired today as a waitress… I was coming out with an order, and then.. They came…" the girl lost it now, her face turning red as tears ran from her eyes… She wasn't exactly in the fetal position, but it was close.

"You think it was Vasquez?" Arsenal offered to Karen. "They could have had some sort of grudge against Great Wall…"

"I know it was Vasquez." Aqualad stated emphatically. "It had to be. Nobody else in this down is capable of ordering such a hit."

Karen frowned. "Considering Great Wall is international, how do we know it was someone from Steel City? It could have been ordered from another country for all we know."

"Y.. you guys are the Titans? You came here to stop the murderer's…"

Karen frowned at the poor girl… "We tried, dear… What is your name?"

The girl looked down at the wet pavement of the back alley, and sobbed out something.

"What?" Arsenal asked.

"J-j-jade…. Jade N-nixon," the girl repeated. "I swear I wasn't involved with the crime business here. I just.. I just needed a job to support myself…"

"You don't have any parents?" Karen asked.

"They're dead…"

"I'm sorry to heard that," Aqualad said. His tone made it sound like he'd had personal experience, but he still wouldn't say anything about his life in Atlantis. And Aquaman was a subject never to be disguised…

But Karen's mind digressed…

"It's okay, Jade," Roy said. He reached out a hand to help her up, and she reached out and took it… And for a moment, he looked into her eyes, and realized that despite the rain and all the crying she was still fairly pretty… She sort of blushed when she noticed he was staring at her…

So he looked away, and continued helping her up…

"What now?" Aqualad asked. "Do we go after Vasquez?"

"Would you drop it with Vasquez already? We don't even know if he was responsible for this." Bumblebee fluttered upward, shrinking… "Aqualad, Arsenal. You escort Ms. Nixon home. I'm going to search for more clues in the restaurant, even if it kills me…

"Yes ma'am," Roy said, saluting her in mock respect. "What are our orders after we take her home?"

"Go check on Mas y Menos. I'll call you if I find anything or run into trouble. Now go."

**

* * *

**

As it turned out, the girl they had found inside the air vent didn't live terribly far from the Golden Buffet, and Aqualad and Arsenal got her there quickly. It was a rather shabby apartment on the seventh floor of a building as old as the industrial revolution when Steel City had been at its peak, though it had now deteriorated greatly.

Still, it wasn't squalor, and it didn't smell like some of the old inner city apartments did back in Star City, back when Arsenal had been Green Arrows partner Speedy. Jade Nixon opened the door and went inside after saying good byes, and Aqualad turned to leave. But Arsenal stayed just a moment, and memorized the apartment number. It was to check her background and make sure everything she said checked out with the rest of the investigation, since she was currently their only living witness… Or at least, that is what he told himself…

The two walked to the bottom of the building and back out into the corrupt city in relative silence. "We've come so far since we started," Roy said. "But there is still so much to do before this city is fit for civilized life again…"

Aqualad glanced at him oddly. "What do you mean?"

"I… well, it's just…" Roy stammered… "I want to make this city safe again. Safe so massacres like tonight don't happen. So criminals can't get away by just giving a wad of their loot to cops. So there are no Jade Nixons, no innocent bystanders minding their own business when suddenly caught up in a massacre."

"You know she was totally checking you out," Garth said off-handedly as the walked on..

"No seriously?" Roy blurted! "You think so!"

The wry smirk on Garth's face told him his enthusiasm had just given him away. "You dork. Love stuck with the witness? You think she'd be interested in someone who she would psychologically associate with the _worst night of her life?_"

Arsenal stared at him dumbly for a moment, then he said, "Good point… Wow, that tirade was really sappy, wasn't it."

"Indeed it was," Aqualad replied.

**

* * *

**

Hours later, shortly before daybreak Carmen Vasquez paced back and forth in his office, dreading the expected phone call and yet unable to act without it… This was a most unexpected and devastating turn of events. It had to end… He had to…

_**DRRRIING DRRRING!**_

The loudness of the telephone suddenly scared him out of his reverie, and he nearly toppled over after jumping a foot in the air…

He let the phone ring once more, and then picked it up. Normally, he was strong in front of his underlings. But in the face of his new boss, the man who had bought his operation after the Crazy-88 debacle, he was like an insignificant worm.

"Y… Yes, sir?" he said timidly.

The voice of the man on the other end of the line wasn't angry. "Mr. Vasquez," he said. "I am entirely not surprised that your latest attempts have failed. Why do I even bother listening to your ideas?"

"I don't know, sir," Vasquez said. He had to force himself to keep his voice even, and not sound apologetic. "The League of Shadows getting involved was completely unforeseeable…"

"And working with Great Wall was completely unintelligent. Your new product has the potential to make both of us billions of dollars and cement my power over this state. I am willing to protect you from any repercussions.." the man gave an ominous pause. "AS LONG AS YOU succeed."

"Mr. Taylor, please…"

"Please? You have some nerve, Vasquez. Until you please me, until you earn my favor, never use that word in speaking with me. Ever."

"Yes, sir. What are my orders then?"

"Begin _my _plan. Immediately. Orphans, street urchins, homeless drunks. Find them, bring them to the plant in Garrison City, and test your product there. Meanwhile, I will use my own means to discredit these so-called Titans that interfere."

Vasquez gulped. "Yes, sir, I will do so immediately. But what of the League of Shadows?"

"I have already contacted someone regarding them. The will be dealt with. In the mean time, think of what the League did as a favor. Without the Great Wall, your organization can expand into Chinatown. And what is good for you is good for me, Vasquez. I trust that you understand this."

"Yes." Vasquez nodded, despite the fact that his boss could not see such an action over the phone, and then gently hung the phone up. "I understand."  
**

* * *

**

Outside the building, a female figure shrouded by darkness stirred. "Taylor." She repeated. It wasn't much, but it was the only lead at this point. The conversation had largely been Vasquez apologizing and groveling to his boss, only audible through special listening apparatus that her boss had provided her with…

Taylor.

She would need to get a wiretap as soon as possible. Maybe then the real nature of the plan could come to light, and maybe she could find out just who this Taylor was.

The young woman ran away from the building, removed a grappling hook from her belt, and fired it off into the dark, then swung away. She had to get back with the info…

If her own boss' training had really paid off, Vasquez would never know she was there.

**

* * *

**

"¿_Qué sucedió despues?"_ asked Mas, clearly more interested in hearing the story than Roy was in telling it.

"Not much. We took the girl home and then came back here. Bumblebee is investigating the crime scene… I'm glad she's doing it. She must have a stronger stomach than Chuck Norris. Or maybe it is just empty."

Mas chuckled at Roy's comment.

Suddenly, Arsenal's TitanCom blipped, and he opened it to find Karen's face greeting him. She looked like she needed sleep.

"What's happening? It's almost 4AM—you still haven't finished."

"I just did," she said. "I went over that building with a proverbial fine-tooth comb."

"What did you find?"

"Nothing. There was another body in the walk-in cooler and some ceramic residue on one of the walls, but no leads."

Arsenal swore and shook his head. "Well, we need some sleep. Though after a night like this, I'm not sure we'll get any."

"Yeah, no kidding," Karen said. "Though as tired as I am I think that maybe…"

The signal suddenly went dead and ice ran up Arsenal's spine…. He immediately activated the GPS and saw where Karen's last coordinates had been. The GPS signal was no longer transmitting, which meant that her communicator had been destroyed or shorted out. "No! Karen!"

"Que?" Menos asked, jarred awake by Roy's scream.

"_Es Bumblebee en peligro_?" asked Mas.

"I don't know," Roy said, growing frustrated. He ran out of the medical room to Garth's room, and banged on the door until Aqualad came out.

"What is it? I'm trying to sleep."

"Trouble. I was talking with Karen when the signal went dead."

Garth growled stifled and angry word or ten and followed Roy back down to the boat…

**

* * *

**

Thanks to Roy's mad boating speed, it only took fifteen minutes to find where Bumblebee was. Karen was lying prone on a rooftop not far from the coast of the lake, her communicator nowhere to be seen. Arsenal ran up close and turned her over. Her eyes were closed, and he couldn't tell if she was breathing.

He pressed the proper combination of buttons to deactivate her armor, and then checked her pulse. Still there. She was just unconscious.

"What happened?" Garth asked. "Did she just pass out flying home?"

"I don't think so…" Roy said, noting a bruise on her forehead. "She was attacked…"

"Wow." Garth said. "That means we probably just walked right into a trap. We should be better than this."

Famous last words.

"THAT WOULD BE CORRECT!" a new voice loudly intoned from somewhere above them.

Arsenal and Aqualad turned to the source of the voice to see a man in a dark red and yellow costume descend from a nearby taller building. It was clear even through the costume that he was extraordinarily muscled, though not large like a body builder. Just very well-defined.

Garth may not have had a clue, but Roy had been in the game long enough to know exactly who it was.

"Shrike," he said.

Shrike was occasionally a member of Nightwing's rogue's gallery up in Bludhaven, but normally acted as an errand boy for the League of Assassins, a rival branch of Ra's al Ghul's League of Shadows. The League of Assassins was led by Lady Shiva, who many considered the greatest martial artist on the planet…

Roy blinked. Shadows. Assassins… If both Leagues were in Steel City for whatever reasons…. Nothing good could come from it.

"So this place does have somebody not completely brain dead," Shrike said. "Well, if you know who I am, you know you really don't stand a chance."

Aqualad smirked. "You know, telling someone that they are fighting for a lost cause usually just makes them fight all the harder. And I doubt you've ever fought an Atlantean before."

"Can't say I have," said Shrike. "But I'm willing to bet you aren't any better than Nightwing. And if you're not, then you don't stand a chance. I wasn't sent here for you, but there is a big enough bounty on your heads that I'm willing to take a little detour—straight through you two."

"Arsenal, are we going to listen to this?" Aqualad asked.

"No. We're still probably going to die, but we're also not going to give up."

Shrike just smirked, cracked his knuckles, and stepped forward. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

He drew a sword from the scabbard on his back, and charged…


	4. Young Blood

**Teen Titans East – Thicker Than Water**

Chapter Four: Young Blood 

The city was strangely quite at this time of the night, the rooftop battle between Arsenal, Aqualad, and the assassin Shrike going completely unnoticed by anyone save the participants…

Well, almost…

Shrike charged forward, swinging his sword first at Arsenal, then reversing and swinging it at Aqualad. Both Titans dove away from his blade, and Garth responded by lunging forwards and slamming his shoulder into Shrike's solar plexus. The assassin grunted, stepping back as Aqualad made contact and then sidestepping, throwing the Atlantean teen to the ground. Garth rolled over as Shrike stabbed down at his face, and then tried to kick the sword from Shrike's hand. The kick made contact, but Shrike maintained his grip on the blade, then swung it down with one hand. It glanced off the back of Aqualad's leg as the youth rolled backwards, digging a few millimeters into his tough skin. If Shrike's grip on the sword had been more solid or Aqualad been a normal human, the damage would have been much worse, but it still stung like crazy.

Aqualad forced himself to stand, charging forward, hoping to punch the assassin. Shrike simply jumped atop Garth's back, rolling over towards Arsenal….

Who had drawn his lethal gun full of real bullets.

Amazingly, even as Roy fired the first shot, Shrike had followed the tip of the gun to where it would hit on his body, and the assassin's immensely sharp sword was there, deflecting the bullet. That's how good Shrike was, and that was why Roy had felt the need to use lethal force. He didn't get a second chance, though, as Shrike quickly disabled the gun hand and hurled the weapon off the rooftop into the street below, then brought the sword back to plunge it into Arsenal's neck. Fortunately, Aqualad got there and grabbed Shrike, pulling him away from Roy by literally throwing himself backwards.

"What?" Shrike muttered. "You get to use lethal toys, don't I get the honor too?" Shrike easily broke the hold despite Garth's Atlantean strength and threw him to the ground behind him, whirling his swords around to slice into the fish-boy's head…

Suddenly he was staggered forward when Arsenal kicked him hard in the back. Shrike rolled forwards, but landed badly and lost his sword as he rolled. Garth grabbed the blade and threw it across the rooftop and off the top of the building.

"That was a mistake," Shrike barked at Aqualad.

Garth rolled backwards again and stood up. "Yeah, whatever." He charged forward, letting his fists do the talking. Shrike was a far superior martial artist, but Aqualad had greater physical strength and had been trained in some techniques by Arsenal—though, to be honest, Arsenal wasn't the best teacher—and could mostly hold his own against someone like Shrike. That is, if the fight remained hand-to-hand only.

Shrike had different ideas, immediately grabbing a pair of tonfa from his belt and began using them to pummel Aqualad into submission, even as Roy hastily reloaded his trick gun with a fresh set of bullets….

With a single powerful kick, the bruised Aqualad was knocked half silly, falling to the ground with a groan. Shrike then turned to attack Arsenal, bringing his pair of tonfa upward to smash the marksman's head in. Roy backpedaled quickly, putting distance between him and Shrike before firing three times in rapid succession. Three blue electric bullets slammed into Shrike's chest, driving him back slightly… And then came the voltage. Normally it would have been enough to put a man down thee times over. But through Shrike's armor, he barely felt five volts.

Even as the next two rounds—rubber bullets—bounced off his chest harmlessly… And then, _click click click.. _Roy's gun was empty, and his face showed his panic as he staggered backwards…

Shrike raised his sword and let out a _kiyah, _bringing it down across Arsenal's neck, severing the teen's head…

Or at least, that was his plan. The best laid plans of mice and men, however. Roy raised his gun once more, and with perfect aim characteristic of his mentor's relentless training, Roy blasted one more round, directly between Shrike's eye. The bullet exploded in Shrike's face, even as Roy put a massive distance between himself and Shrike… and then the assassin began retching.

"Heh," Roy laughed. "The old 'remove three rounds to fake an empty chamber' trick. Even the great Shrike is not immune to it."

The assassin, spat and coughed, eyes full of anger. "What did you do to me?" he demanded. Then he coughed some more, and lost his lunch on the rooftop.

"Laboratory creation," Roy said. "Scientifically determined to be the worst smell on Earth—a mixture of rotten eggs, decaying flesh, skunk spray, and human sweat. You just got a face full of it."

Shrike spat again, his eyes welling up with tears from what had gotten in his eyes even through the mask, and his face twisted into a mask of rage. He lunged forward, slamming his shoulder into Roy's stomach and driving him backwards, then locking his injured arm up in a joint lock. Roy screamed as pure agony wracked his entire body, his only though to get free…

Suddenly, Garth was there, jerking Shrike away and pummeling the assassin with a flurry of blows. A punch sent a stream of blood flying from Shrike's mouth, even as the assassin keeled over… Then immediately changed directions, whirling a no-longer-concealed blade forwards and stabbing it into Garth's abdomen. The Atlantean gasped, more shocked than hurt at first, and then staggered back a bit, before falling over, the pain in his abdomen making it impossible to move.

And worse, if he pulled it out, the blood would come… Unless…

Shrike paid no more mind to Garth, turning back to Roy, who slammed a new trick clip into his pistol—Shrike's eyes narrowed. "How did your arm get back into that sling!"

"A little birdie helped me!" Roy shouted, jumping forward and slamming his foot into Shrike's solar plexus. The criminal skidded backwards and..

Suddenly found himself on the receiving end of an Atlantean kick…

He glanced back to see Aqualad, standing, though grimacing from the pain. He realized the kid had torn a strip of cloth off his unitard leggings and wrapped it around his stomach as a tourniquet…

And was now holding the knife he'd been stabbed with. "I think this is yours!" Garth shouted, slashing with the knife. His form was bad, but Shrike was still reeling from the horrible smell that filled his nostrils with every breath, so he wasn't able to properly disarm the blade. Instead he lunged for a killing strike, hoping to crush Garth's trachea with a finger-jab to the throat…

He didn't get there, as Garth brought his arms up and smashed them together against Shrike's forearm, breaking radius and ulna alike. Shrike growled due to the pain, even as he leapt away from the Atlantean. Then he pressed a button on his belt, and the fabric of his suit suddenly tightened beyond belief, jerking his arm back into place as a makeshift cast…

"Is it just me, or did that seem familiar?" Garth asked through his pain…

"Just like Crazy-88…" he returned… "You think there is a connection?"

"Crazy-88," shouted Shrike, "was a disgrace to the League. He relied too much on his technology and not enough on his skill."

"He got farther than you did!" Garth shouted. "You've disabled one of us, and caused us some pain. He almost killed all five of us."

Angered, Shrike charged forward, drawing what appeared to be a pair of whips from his belt… Until he turned on the electric current. The metallic chords that had appeared to be whips suddenly shot straight out, becoming perfectly straight and rigid… not to mention electrified…

Shrike attacked, the fight becoming a flurry of punches and kicks, blocks and dodges, all the while the two injured Titans dodging the electrified swords of the nauseous assassin…

Garth rolled under and swept out his legs, and Roy kicked him in the face. Shrike went with the blow as best he could, rolling through a puddle and almost giving himself a zap when his face barely left the water before he plunged the blade in for balance… But he couldn't keep up, and Roy and Garth were suddenly on top of him again.. and then Garth brought out the knife, and stabbed it right into Shrike's leg… The assassin staggered back with a gasp, even as Roy managed to finally disarm one of Shrike's swords… And then jammed the blade end into Shrike's half-open mouth…

The electricity coursed through Shrike's head, causing the assassin to convulse and jerk before finally collapsing face first onto the wet rooftop…

The fight was unquestionably over.

"How _did _you get your arm back into that sling?" Garth asked after a beat…

Roy glanced over into some shadows by the roof entrance to the building, smirking. "It's over. You can come out now…"

Garth gasped when suddenly someone he didn't even realize was there popped out of the shadows. She was female, that much was obvious. And she was, by human standards, quite attractive. Her blond hair was tied back with a red headband, and her costume was a mix of red and other warms shades, with a very dark red cape around her shoulders. The cape was still just bright enough to make her earlier invisibility very impressive.

"Who… are you?" Garth said, approaching the girl… He was still quite confused.

"I'm Flamebird," the girl said. "My boss sent me to spy on Carmen Vasquez, and on my way back to our temporary base, I saw you guys fighting… And I thought maybe you could use some help. But I realized who it was, and.. Let's just say me and Shrike have some bad history. So I helped by putting Speedy's arm back in the sling…"

"I'm Arsenal now," 'Speedy' said.

"Oh, right… then why does your costume still have an S on it?" Flamebird's question was asked without a hint of 'smart' in her voice.

Arsenal sweatdropped. "Honestly, I just haven't got around to changing it yet."

"Oh," said Flamebird… "Also, I got you this." She handed Arsenal the gun that Shrike had knocked off the roof. "I doubt my boss would approve but.."

"Who exactly is your boss?" Garth asked, still clutching his wounded abdomen.

Flamebird frowned. "I don't really think I'm supposed to tell anybody that yet. He likes his secrecy, just like his old boss."

"Huh?" Garth blinked.

"Forget it," said Roy. "She doesn't have to tell us if she doesn't want to." He began dragging the cold unmoving body of Shrike over to where the others were, and then brought the assassin's hands behind his back… "Man, I wish we had some handcuffs."

"Here."

Roy reached out and took the cuffs then bend over and latched them on Shrike's back… Then he blinked… Who…? Arsenal turned to his right to see a familiar figure standing in front of him—a totally black body suit with a sky-blue avian on the front, with wings that extended all the way across his shoulders and ended in a stripe that ran down his forearms…

Nightwing. The original Robin, now his own hero.

"Holy crap!" Arsenal exclaimed. "Night…wing… What brings you to Steel City?"

Dick Grayson smirked. "Lots of things," he said. "Shrike is one of them. The League of Shadows and League of Assassins has been doing some infighting, and as a result, the leadership is preoccupied. Certain members are slipping through the cracks and taking odd jobs all across the East Coast. Flamebird and I were tracking them."

Flamebird agreed. "We're afraid that the Great Wall syndicate will back the League of Assassins, and then some other crime syndicate will back the League of Shadows. Then we'll have a full-fledge gang war all across the coast, except all the soldiers will be like better than green berets!"

"Wait…" Roy said. "You're like, Nightwing's sidekick?"

Flamebird's eyes narrowed. "I'm not a sidekick! We're partners."

"Yeah, partners. Right," Roy's smirk was only half genuine, considering he would have said the same thing about himself and Ollie.

Nightwing amended. "I'm training her to be a fighter and a detective. But if my experience with the original Titans taught me anything, you need more than an adult who knows what's right and wrong. You need a group of peers—people who you can make mistakes with and learn with as well as learn from."

"Wait, are you saying…?" Roy began.

"I want Flamebird to join the Titans East, at least on a part-time basis," Nightwing confirmed…

"Oh really!" Flamebird blurted. "That would be like so cool! Omigosh!"

Arsenal and Aqualad both glanced at Flamebird following that outburst and promptly facevautled.

"Look, Nightwing," Roy said. "It's not anything personal, cause you rule and all… But this really isn't my decisions… It's… Oh no! Karen!"

Garth goggled—how could they have both forgotten Bumblebee..? They both scanned the rooftop and realized she was no where to be found..

"It's okay," Flamebird said. "I moved her out of the way to another rooftop so she didn't get stomped on."

Roy looked at her. "Dang, you _are_ good."

Nightwing put his hand on the girl's shoulder. "She's been trained by the best. Anyhow, what do you say we drop off 'Shriek' here at the police HQ, and then get some rest?"

**

* * *

**

As the sun rose and the adrenaline faded, the Titans East and Nightwing finally got settled in at the East Tower, a strong sense of fatigue washing over everyone in the building. Bumble Bee had come to on the way back to the tower, and had been more than a little surprised to find Nightwing there with them. Now she was making notes in her log book even as Nightwing and Flamebird talked of their intentions in Steel City.

"I learned of the brewing war between the League of Shadows and League of Assassins from Shrike himself," Nightwing said. "Not that he'd be so careless. I saw some guys in black ninja outfits trying to kill Shrike while he was trying to kill the police commissioner of Bludhaven." Nightwing was referring to the city from which he worked since leaving Gotham years ago. "They were about evenly matched, even when it was two against one. I figured there was some connection."

"So what led you here?" Karen asked.

"Well, I'm not going into all the gory details, but with help from Batman, I found out that the Ra's al Ghul's League of Assassins made a vie for power sometime after Ra's' apparent death at the hands of Batman ten years ago. The Society of Shadows threw them out of the 'club' and renamed themselves the League of Shadows; both groups declared themselves the true torch-bearer's of Ra's' agenda."

Arsenal, knowing the next part of the story, piped up. "And then when Ra's showed up again, he sided with the League of Shadows, right?"

"Yeah," said Flamebird. "The League of Assassins is lead by some ice-queen called Lady Shiva. Apparently she's ordered an open war on the League of Shadows in retaliation for their 'betrayal' of Ra's al Ghul's 'principles'. Di… Nightwing thinks that she wants to take down Ra's himself and become ruler of both League's."

Garth shook his head groggily. "Ugh, League of this, Society of that. Enough to give an Atlantean a headache. What does any of this have to do with us?" It was clearly taxing on him to stay awake.

Flamebird stood up at started berating him. "Well, duh, they're in _your_ town. We can't just leave Bludhaven forever. What we really need to know is why Vasquez and Great Wall were working together, and why the League of Shadows wanted to kill them all…"

"Carmen Vasquez has no ties to anyone," Bumblebee said. "He's a small fish in a pond that's way too big for him. We think he's working for someone else… Someone behind the scenes."

"He is!" blurted Flamebird. "I was listening to his phone—I tapped it after Nightwing showed me how—and I found out he's working for a guy called Taylor."

"Taylor what?" Arsenal asked, his eyes lighting up.

"He didn't give any other name, just 'Mr. Taylor.'" Flamebird's eyes sunk down. "He didn't hear, me, but he just hung up before it went any farther than that. I'm sorry it's not much…"

"It will have to be enough," Nightwing said.

Arsenal nodded, walking across the room and placing a hand on Flamebird's shoulder. "It's more than we had before. It's a start."

Bumble Bee yawned, stretching out her legs and arms and rubbing the bruises Shrike had given her. "We have a name finally. Now we need to put a face with it. But we're all exhausted. It can wait till we all get some rest, can't it?"

Karen glanced over at Garth, who had already nodded off.

"Looks like it will have to," Nightwing said with a smirk. "Alright… Mind if I crash here for a while?" He indicated the couch on which he was sitting. "I won't be sleeping long anyway, but if I try to make it back to our mobile HQ I'll probably pass out."

"Be our guest," Karen said, picking up Garth's legs. She fluttered her wing-armor for a minute and then began dragging the sleeping teen out of the room and towards his own.

Six weary teenagers and the man who calls the Dark Knight his mentor departed the meeting room and soon found themselves sleeping off the hellish night comfortably, finally attaining some well-deserved rest.

**

* * *

**

"Real name?" asked Bumble Bee.

"Er, well, my birth certificate says Mary Elizabeth Kane. I normally go by Bette." The girl's answer was rather anxious, but not disrespectful.

"Age?" Karen asked.

"Sixteen. I'll be Seventeen in March..." Suddenly she went off subject… again… "Hey, seriously, what's with Aqualad. He's been giving me a cold shoulder for the past five days."

Bumble Bee sighed. "We're not talking about Aqualad now. We're trying to get all your info in our secure database. What is your parentage?"

"My parents were murdered," she said sadly. "I was raised by my grandparents at their mansion… they mean well, but they're always off doing things that don't interest me. Nightwing—he saw me playing tennis one day and, I always wanted to meet him and…"

Bette's rambling explanation stopped short when she looked up to see Karen glaring at her, not hiding her annoyance. "What were their _names_?"

"My parents were Debra and Gary. I was young when they died… I guess even though my grandparents raised me, they weren't as much an influence on me as my Aunt Kathy. She always pushed me into the Tennis tournaments and the beauty pageants… Years ago I went to Gotham for one, and saw Nightwing—back when he was Robin—I'd always wanted to meet him…"

"You already said that, Bette. Please, stay focused. You're going to get yourself killed in this line of work if you can't keep you mind on what you're doing." Karen hated to be so harsh on the girl, but considering her mental performance so far, she was beginning to question Nightwing's sanity. Still, the girl was certainly cut out for it physically. She want overly muscular, but the muscles that were visible were well toned, and despite her rather absent-minded attitude she had a strong athletic build and a large degree of physical confidence. The results of her being a tennis player, Karen assumed.

Nightwing and the boys, minus Menos and Mas, had been digging in and doing a lot of research throughout the past five days. Unfortunately, the number of Taylor's in the state of Pennsylvania did not make their task an easy one. There were several thousand in Steel City alone, though Karen sensed that this threat was something… a bit less local…

Finally, Bette spoke up and drove Karen out of her contemplation. "Anything else?"

"Um, yeah, I need to know anything you can tell me about your medical history… Just in case."

Bette sighed. "Right… well…"

**

* * *

**

Meanwhile, Roy, Dick, and Garth were in the East Tower ops room, searching every database they had access to for information about any possible lead to their elusive Mr. Taylor…

And drawing a blank.

"Well, we've searched the records of everyone in Steel City who has connections with Vasquez or his company," sad Garth. "Either we've missed something important, or we need to be widening our circle."

"Says the kid from the ocean," Roy barked, pounding his fist on the computer table. "Our world isn't as big as yours, Garth. We have to find something…"

"Wait…" Nightwing said, leaning forward… "What is this?"

"Huh?" Roy followed Dick's finger to the screen, where it showed that Vasquez's company Nautitech had been recently purchased and merged with a major conglomerate from Pittsburgh. "You think this is important? Why would a Pittsburgh criminal be interested in an Eerie County toxic chemical violation?"

"Well, someone is trying to kill you all for snooping, and this is our best lead so far," Nightwing said. "This company that bought Vasquez's company is run by a man named Anderson Taylor. If this isn't the right guy, then we're back to square one. It's worth a look."

Suddenly, a female voice came in from the other room. "But who's going to go check it out?" asked Bumble Bee. "We're understaffed as it is; we can't afford to run off to Pittsburg."

"You could go, right?" Arsenal asked, indicating Nightwing.

But Dick shook his head. "No, I have to get back to Bludhaven. I've been gone too long as it is…"

"I'll go," announced Flamebird as she followed Karen into the room. "Come on, it's about time I learned to fly solo, Nightwing."

"Bette," Nightwing said. "I don't think this is a good idea… If Anderson Taylor is willing to send League assassins after teenagers, then he's not going to forgive you if you're caught."

"Vasquez didn't catch me!" Bette shot back.

"Vasquez is nothing compared to the type of man we suspect Taylor of being, Bette. You can't just expect everything here to be easy…"

"What if I go with her?" Karen asked. "I'll keep her safe, and Arsenal can lead the team while we're gone."

"But…" Roy started to object.

"That's an order," Karen said. "If Nightwing agrees to it, of course."

Dick Grayson chuckled. "I don't really like the idea, but nobody said having a sidekick would be easy."

"Partner," Bette corrected.

"Yeah," Nightwing said with a smirk. "I never learn, do I?"

* * *

Disclaimer: Anderson Taylor is loosely based on the villain James Taylor from the classic film _Mr. Smith Goes to Washington_. 


	5. Blood Red

**Teen Titans East in  
Thicker Than Water**

**Chapter Five: Blood Red**

Bette finished running her fingers through her hair one last time, before stepping back underneath the showerhead to rinse. She couldn't help but smile. The shower in the Titans East Tower worked much better than the lack-luster bath in her and Nightwing's 'Mobile HQ', which was really scarcely more than a modified RV on the inside. She would definitely enjoy staying here, even if it _was_ temporary for now.

She allowed the consistently-warm water to finish its job and then let relax her for a few minutes longer before turning it off…

A second later she almost jumped out of her skin when the door to the shower burst open and Karen Beecher stood there, glaring at her. "What on earth is taking you so long, Bette!" Karen blurted. "I've been ready for nearly two hours!"

"What the heck are you doing?" Bette blurted, grabbing a towel from the nearby rack and pulling it close to herself. "I'm naked!"

Bumblebee gave her a sarcastic frown. "Yeah, and you ain't got nothing I ain't got." The Titan East leader turned and started to walk out. "Hurry up or I'm leaving you behind."

Somewhat shocked, Bette glared at her angrily before throwing her towel down in disgust. Leader or not, Karen had no right to treat her that way! Nightwing would never do something like that! Bette picked her towel back up and finished drying herself off before slipping into a thin white tank-top (given her costume, it was the most comfortable form of under-clothing) and then grabbed the pair of briefs she'd laid out for herself, putting them on in such a rush, she fell over a-la Marty McFly in the first _Back to the Future _film, landing painfully on her chin.

By the time she finally finished getting dressed, she was ready to drive a Birdarang through Karen's throat.

**0000**

Roy Harper had once said the day he'd be glad to see Steamroller was the day he'd apologize to Green Arrow for every headache he'd ever caused him, every villain that had gotten away because Speedy had gotten in trouble, and every unkind word he'd said to Ollie in their fights over politics.

He was afraid he'd have to make good on that oath today, because Steamroller was terrorizing downtown Steel City and Arsenal couldn't be happier that it was _not_, in fact, an assassin from either League, nor a hitman hired to kill them.

It was just Steamroller. Big, stupid, cybernetically enhanced Steamroller.

And that was something he knew that he and Aqualad could handle. Roy ran forward, firing a couple of trick bullets he had modified to have a tachyon-impact tip like his most common type of arrow. Essentially it was design to spread the force of the impact over a larger area—ultimately the difference was the difference between perforating his foes and just given them a bad bruise.

All three bullets slammed into Steamroller's chest, driving him backwards, even as Aqualad leapt over the villain's namesake weapon and smashed into his face with a powerful kick…

Steamroller was driven back farther, and Aqualad bounced off and landed in front of the villain, still in a battle stance. Arsenal glanced over at him. "How did steam-head get out of jail anyway?"

Garth shrugged. "No idea, but by Neptune I'm more than ready to send him back. This is almost cathartic compared to what we've been going through."

Roy smirked. "So I'm not the only one who thinks so."

Aqualad responded by reaching out and finding all the nearby water he could, and drenching the cyborg with it. Unfortunately, there were no uncovered circuits for him to short, but Steamroller jerked back anyway, probably out of reflex, and separated his arms from the steamroller position into two massive fists, then ran forward.

Arsenal ran right, Aqualad ran left. The former bounced off a street-corner mailbox onto the awning in front of a shop. He holstered his normal gun and pulled out his trick gun…

Just then, another burst of water from a fire hydrant drenched Steamroller, and he turned to smash Aqualad… Roy fired off his three worthless rubber shots into Steamroller's head, just to get his attention back, and then blasted him in the left eye with his first electric shot. The energy pulsed throughout the criminal's cyborg body and it let out an unintelligible cry before collapsing to its knees.

Steamroller started to get back up as the electricity dissipated… But then Aqualad leapt over the villain's shoulder, using his hydrokinesis to lift a large ball of water into the sky…

Garth mounted the back of Steamroller's neck and forced the water through his metallic mask and into the robot elements of his body. The villain was able to shrug the Atlantean off, but it was clearly too late by the time, as the cyborg began to twitch and finally fell over.

Aresenal slid down off the awning and landed by Aqualad, first holstering his gun, and then helping Garth to his feet with his free hand. "Good job," he said. Then gave a wry smirk. "For a guy in a unitard, I mean."

0000

The tension in Karen Beecher's car was thick as London fog as she and Bette drove the three-hour distance between Pittsburgh and Steel City. Bette sat in the passenger seat, arms crossed and head lowered, annoyed that the only headphones she had compatible with her I-Pod was the one-ear headset she used when working with Nightwing.

Even at maximum volume her rock and roll couldn't quite drown out the R&B Karen was playing on the radio. After a silence that may have lasted five or thirty minutes, Bette let out a long sigh. "Are we there yet?"

Karen glared at her for a second before returning her eyes to the road. "I swear, _Mary_, you are such a child."

"Yeah," Bette replied sarcastically. "Calling me by my first name just to annoy me is the pinnacle of maturity, right?"

The blond teen could literally hear Karen gritting her teeth after that remark, a minor victory to be sure. Of course, Nightwing would probably reprimand her for such behavior, but he wasn't here now, was he? Still, Karen was her leader for the time being…

Maybe she should just speak her mind and hope the Bee decided not to sting. "Look, I probably am being a bit immature," Bette said at length. "But that was _not_ cool what you did earlier."

"What?" Karen asked, apparently honestly confused about her statement.

"You know what I mean. Barging in on me while I was in the shower, yelling at me before I realized I had done anything wrong. I feel like I'm constantly getting on your nerves and you won't tell me why."

Karen sighed, keeping here eyes, "Look, Bette, you're new. You are an outsider, and there is going to be a period of adjustment. Look at the Titans West. They were infiltrated once by a pretty blond girl like yourself." She shook her head. "Then that boy from another universe showed up and almost got them all killed. It's not something the Titans East have had to go through yet."

"Come on," Bette frowned. "It's something more than that. Terra and Rag-whatever were people who popped up out of nowhere, from what I understand. I was recommended for membership by Nightwing himself." Bette pulled her headset out of her ear and turned her I-Pod off. "Doesn't _that _count for something?"

Not looking away from the road again, Karen simply muttered, "Maybe. What were you doing for two hours anyway? You couldn't have been taking a shower all that time."

Bette frowned, more of guilt than sadness. "I had to pick out my outfit, make sure my Flamebird gear was all gathered, and I might have drifted in and out of sleep a few times… Sorry."

Karen just sighed, and continued heading south.

**0000**

Carmen Vasquez stood on the balcony of his penthouse, a satellite telephone in his hand. His wife was elsewhere at the moment, probably out somewhere cheating on him, but that didn't really matter. He could deal with that in due time, but certain people couldn't wait. Anderson Taylor couldn't wait.

"Yes," he said, "I've confirmed that the Titans have a new member. She calls herself Flamebird. I don't know where she came from… What? No, she's not a metahuman."

Carmen listened intently to the voice on the other end, and gulped at what he heard. "Nightwing, sir? The vigilante from Bludhaven? Okay, sir. I'll do it immediately. Should I contact through the normal channels or do you have someone in particular in mind?"

The voice on the other end said something menacing, and Vasquez started to look back into his apartment. "What do you mean turn around?"

Then he gasped, as a blur of the darkest blue but speckled with white tore through his house far faster than his eye could track, rearranging his furniture, plugging and unplugging devices faster than the eye could blink.

Vasquez slowly walked into the apartment as the blur died down, and then saw him—he wasn't a terribly tall man, but his muscles were very built. He wore a suit that completely covered his body, so blue it was almost black. It was sprinkled with a starfield, and Vasquez thought he could see the Big Dipper and Orion's Belt in the picture…

"Who…who are you?" he asked, his accent barely noticeable..

In contrast, the man dressed like midnight spoke with a much thicker accent; English clearly wasn't his first language. "You may call me _Medianoche_," he said. "Taylor sent me to help you out, but first…" the man trailed off... "We must discuss my _fee_."

**0000**

The first thing Arsenal noticed when he stepped off of the tower elevator was that something seemed… off. Specifically, the place smelled of burritos, despite the fact that nobody was supposed to have cooked there since Nightwing's hamburger fiasco.

The second thing he smelled was the faintest traces of incense. Not sure who or what was in the tower, Roy drew his gun and went through the tower, room by room clearing them till he came to the medial room where Mas and Menos rested.

He activated the door, and it slid open, even as he began moving. His gun arm swung around… And pointed directly at the face of a lovely young woman with a chakra in her forehead. Roy blinked.

"Hello," Raven said.

The two stared at each other for a minute.

Finally, Arsenal spoke. "Raven…"

Her trademark sarcasm kicked in, and Raven looked at the barrel of Roy's pistol. "Are you going to put your gun down? I've already jammed the firing mechanism."

Arsenal glanced at the gun to see that the hammer, trigger, and chamber were all coated in Raven's black energy. "So I see."

The two stared at each other for a minute longer, before Roy finally holstered his gun. "What are you doing here?"

By this point, Aqualad had found his way into the room, and gasped when he saw Raven there. "I heard about what happened during your fight, a bit late thanks to some difficulties adjusting to our new member, and came here to heal you all as best I can before I leave."

"Leave?" Roy asked. "What do you mean?"

Raven explained. "Just last week, we got a new part-time Teen Titan calling himself Yin. I don't think it's a good idea to have him on the team; he's a good kid, but I'm afraid he will get hurt. But… he said something that made me wonder… My home-dimension—Azarath—was destroyed by a demon called Trigon the Terrible. But Yin suggested that, maybe, some people besides myself were able to get away from Azarath in time, before Trigon killed everyone. And as much of a long shot as it is… it makes sense. I need to go look for them. And I don't know how long I'll be gone. So I want to make sure there is nothing I've left undone before I go."

Roy blinked. That sure was a lot to absorb. He'd heard something about the demon that nearly destroyed Earth a few weeks ago… Trigon was his name? It sounded familiar…

He looked down when Raven reached out and placed her hands on his arm, and white energy began pulsing over it… She winced momentarily while she was working, but when she stopped, his arm felt like a million bucks.

"Whoa!" he said, taking the sling off and feeling his shoulder and arm. There was no pain at all.

"Time did most of the work," Raven said. "I did what I could. Mas and Menos had it much worse—I did all I could for them, but it will still be a few more days before it is safe for them to run, I'm afraid."

As she said that, Roy and Garth both goggled to see that Mas and Menos were not in their beds. "What?" they both blurted.

Suddenly, both twins entered the room, holding plates with burritos on them as they came. "_Hola_!" shouted Mas.

"_Nosotros estamos recuperando mas rapido ahora. Graicias a Raven,_" Menos added.

"They can walk!" Garth blurted stupidly.

"Well, you're certainly observant," Raven said. Still, she gave the heartthrob a wry smile. "I need to get back to Jump City as soon as possible, though." The young woman turned and spoke into her communicator, and in a instant, the JLU satellite transportation beam encompassed the girl, and she was gone.

**0000**

From the balcony of their hotel room, Karen surveyed the distant L.M. Rutherford building through a pair of binoculars. The building was the current home of the GigaDyne corporation—the conglomeration of several media and R&D companies owned and chaired by one Mr. Anderson Taylor.

Bette stood next to her, studying the building without the benefit of binoculars. It was clear her eyes were looking for a way in, or a way to the top. "This could be difficult for me," she said. "No buildings in the area. I might have to rappel the whole way up, assuming my grapple gun will even find something to latch onto the building. It's so smooth."

"And you can't fly," Karen pointed out.

Bette glanced at her. "Well, no. I'm not a metahuman."

"Speaking of which," she said, "How did you get the name Flamebird? You don't have any incendiary weapons on you, do you?"

Bette looked away. "Nightwing came up with it. I was just going to call myself Bat-Girl—you know, with a hyphen to differentiate myself from the other one, but he suggested Flamebird. It's a Kryptonian legend, apparently. Superman told him of two people called Nightwing and Flamebird who fought for justice on his homeworld. Kind of like us—superheroes I mean."

"Yeah," Karen said absently, only half paying attention. Much to Bette's chagrin. At length, she put the binoculars down. "Alright, it's 2PM now," she said. "We'll rest until about 9'o'clock and then go at it. I don't know how late we'll be out, so try and conserve your energy for now. If we have to pull an all-nighter for some reason, I don't want either of us falling asleep on the job."

"Agreed," she said. "Now we just have to hope Dick—er, Nightwing was right."

After a moment, Bumble Bee glared at her. "Don't drop _my_ name in public or you're off the team. Am I clear?"

Bette nodded, then curtly replied. "Crystal."

**0000**

Hours after Raven left, Arsenal settled into his seat in front of the nearest Tower computer. He was going to check his e-mail, browse his normal message boards, and generally do some hero work on unsolved issues, such as the Great Wall murders. He had been ordered to stay out of contact with Karen and Bette unless it was the direst emergency. No risks could be taken.

Unfortunately, as he slid into the chair, he noticed a blinking light that indicated he had a personal call. Sighing, Roy pressed the button to bring the call onto the screen.

The man that appeared was a familiar face—Detective Travis Wertham, a youngish cop from the SCPD. He didn't really trust the superhuman types, but he was Roy's only contact and confidant within the police department. The fact that Roy had no actual powers probably helped things a bit.

Roy could tell by the look on Wertham's face that the news wasn't good. "What's going on, Detective?" Arsenal asked, sliding into his hero voice and demeanor with the ease acquired by years of practice.

"Nothing good, I'm afraid," replied the man on the other end. "The mass murder at the Chinese place a few days ago? We've got another one just like it."

Roy cursed. "Where is it?"

"The Indigo Iguana," replied the cop. "It's a dive that everybody unofficially knows has Mafia ties. Of course most of the force is too bent to do a thing about it," he said, glancing around to make sure he was alone.

Roy nodded, all too certain that it was true, after what he'd seen earlier the night of the Great Wall murders.

"Alright," he said, "Aqualad and I will be out to look into it. We have reason to believe this is the work of the Society of Shadows."

Wertham frowned. "Never heard of them. More super freaks?"

"Much worse than your average super 'freaks' sir," Arsenal said with a sigh. "They're a legion of highly-trained assassins lead by the criminal mastermind Ra's Al Ghul—one of them could probably kill the entire force. Why they're targeting the Great Wall and mafia, I have no idea yet."

The detective let the statement hang in the air for a while, and finally spoke. "What makes you so sure it's them?"

Roy goggled. He'd almost forgotten why he had thought that, and he didn't want to admit it. He felt he had no choice, though. 'Just a hunch' wouldn't cut it with Wertham. But that girl had been so traumatized by the first attack; the thought of making her relive it via testimony was actually painful to him.

But whoever was doing these things had to be brought to justice. So he said it…

"I know I should have said this five days ago…" he trailed off. "There was an eyewitness—a survivor to the first attack. By the name of Jade Nixon. I'll have her address when I arrive at the scene. Arsenal out." And with that, he killed the communiqué.

Roy pulled his Titan Com from his pocket and switched it to cell phone mode; slowly he began dialing Jade's number… This would not be easy to explain to her, but if they were going to bust these guys, and do it in the most efficient and legal manner as possible… Well, it had to be done.

So why did it hurt so much?

**0000**

Not long after that exchange, a car that had recently left the little hotel where Karen and Bette were rooming turned into a back ally near the GigaDyne building, then slid into the shadows, and went totally silent.

"You sure we should park this close?" Bette asked. "This is your car with your plates on it, right?"

Karen nodded. "Yeah… but my dad has his moments." She opened up the console, and pressed a concealed button on the inside of the lid. Suddenly, the entire car went black. It didn't' disappear, but everything about the car became completely and totally black. Not invisible—it was as if all the light the car was reflecting suddenly vanished.

"What did you do?" Bette's eyes were wide, but she was shaking her head as if she was having trouble adjusting.

"Something my dad designed," Karen answer. "He calls I the LightVoid shield. It basically absorbs all the light hitting the car, so it looks like a shadow."

"Wow…"

Karen nodded. "Now let's get ready. This probably won't be easy." Karen reached into the back and removed a small belt with a very unusual buckle from the back seat, while Bette removed the backpack with all her Flamebird gear in it.

Bette ran around to the side of the car—it was parked next to a 12 foot fence around the L.M. Rutherford building—and opened her pack. She undressed leaning against the car and stuffed her street clothes into the bag before pulling out the Flamebird suit.

"I wish we'd done this in the room. It's freezing out here!"

Karen glanced at the car thermometer, which read 64 Fahrenheit, and rolled her eyes. Though, she had to be impressed by Bette's suit. Dark red with a golden 'Flamebird' across the chest, the tunic part was ostensibly little more than a leotard. But that concealed a thermal-adapting high-tech weave of both Kevlar and stuff her father hadn't even been able to explain. It would stop almost anything but armor piercing rounds.

Bette pulled that on, one leg at a time, then pressed a small hidden button in the center of the suit which caused the back to zip up automatically. The belt snapped on easily, and Bette loaded it with more birdarangs and explosive disks than should reasonably fit in it. The cape, which was supposedly NOMEX on the outside and more of that stuff Professor Beecher didn't recognize on the inside, slid on over that, and lastly she put on the mask, which was really just a pair of yellow-tinted goggles.

Karen reached down and secured her belt, even as Bette turned around, pulling her visor down. "Are you read to go?"

Karen looked up and blinked. "Did your voice just change, Flamebird?"

For a moment, the girl seemed slightly confused, and then shock her head. "What, no, I don't think so. My speaking voice isn't really that threatening, you know, so Nightwing taught me how to do a 'hero voice'… Is it too much?"

"No, actually," Karen said. "It just surprised me. It's like that mask makes you a different person."

"You think so?" Bette asked with a big grin. Karen almost facevaulted, as Bette was suddenly back to her normal teenage girl self the moment she'd gotten what Karen hadn't even _meant_ as a compliment. "Aren't you getting your gear on?"

Karen smirked, and tapped her belt; suddenly, in a blur of light and motion, armor that hadn't been there before phased into existence, even as her street clothes vanished and were replaced by a black body suit that went under the armor. Four wings unfolded from the back of the armor, and Karen shrunk down to action-figure size.

Flamebird stared at her for a brief second. "Showoff."

Karen flew over the wall onto the property, and Bette followed her, using the car as a stepping-stone to get over the wall and into the GigaDyne parking lot. Remembering to stay in the shadows Bette followed Karen up to the building.

A security guard shined his flashlight in their direction as they reached the building, but Bumblebee and Flamebird were both able to find suitable hiding places from the guard's beam. After he left, Bee hovered closer to Flamebird and whispered in her ear. "I'm going in the bottom and using the air vents to scout the building. Will you be alright out here?" Karen indicated Bette's bare legs, which were covered by her boots only halfway up the shin. "You sure you're not cold in that?"

"This from the girl," Flamebird shot back, "that had her shirt cut off by a super villain before she realized wearing a tube top into battle was a bad idea."

"Yeah, yeah," Bumblebee muttered. "I blame Derek Wyatt."

CRASH went the fourth wall.

"Go on," Bette said when she was certain the guards didn't hear it. "I'll be fine."

Karen nodded, and flew off with one last warning to maintain radio silence. Meanwhile, Bette removed her grapple gun from her belt and looked up. The building wasn't as smooth as it had looked from the hotel, so she could probably manage. I aiming it at a protrusion, Bette closed her eyes, and fired….

It was already sure to be a looooong night.


	6. First Blood

_Author's Note: The two stories of this chapter are not running parallel—I have divided up the timeline so that the segments with Arsenal and Jade happen the day after Flamebird and Bumblebee infiltrate the Tower. Therefore, there is no continuity error, just intentional discontinuity._

* * *

**  
Thicker Than Water  
Chapter Six: First Blood**

Arsenal arrived at the scene of the crime fifteen minutes after receiving the call, running on little more than Red Bull and willpower. Detective Wertham had showed him the crime scene, and Roy had nearly wretched. It was eerily similar to the Great Wall killings, down to the complete lack of evidence—minus the corpses and blood—that a killer had even been there. No footprints, fingerprints, or broken furniture.

It was as if death itself had descended on the building and done the killings; there were only two or three assassins in the world THIS good. One of them was the legendary Deathstroke the Terminator, recently revealed to have been the self-same Slade the Titans West had been fighting for years.

And Slade preferred guns to blades in such jobs. No, this was someone else.

But what bothered Roy was the positioning. The Great Wall murders had been committed against fleeing victims, victims of an army clad in black, as Jade had told him. Here, it was different. The bodies here were all arranged in a circle around a central point, save for a few—as if the mafia goons had been attacking a single foe, and were cut down one by one.

Detective Wertham approached Roy as he exited the crime scene. "Well, what's your analysis, great one?" asked the officer, his voice laced with cynicism.

Roy handed him the slip of paper on which Jade Nixon's address had been written down. "These murders seem to have been carried out by a single perpetrator, hard to believe as that is. My witness said that the murders in China Town were committed by a group of men in black assassin uniforms. As morbid as this sounds, the pattern of the bodies seems to confirm everything."

"You think it was done by different perpetrators?"

"Positive," Roy said. "It makes sense, right?" he indicated the building. "The Mafia probably hired some League of Shadows members to take out Great Wall restaurant. The leaders of the great wall hired a different, independent assassin to take out the Mafia in retaliation."

"That seems sort of… simplistic. Almost gang-land," the Detective's scorn wasn't thick—it was actually more perplexed wondering. "This isn't the west coast, you know."

"No, in my experience criminals can be extremely petty." Roy thought of some of the capers he and Green Arrow had busted back in the day. "I assume you'd like to question Jade Nixon."

"Definitely, but not tonight. I want you to be there tomorrow for the questioning to listen for inconsistencies, clues, anything that you might have missed the night of the murders."

Arsenal nodded. "Did forensics find anything at the Great Wall?"

"Not a whole lot," he said. "Other than the fountains of blood. There was some unknown fabric melted onto one of the stovetops, but otherwise, nothing."

"Fine. Tomorrow, then. What time?"

"I'll call you when we're ready," Detective Wertham tipped his hat like an old-fashioned detective and headed back to his vehicle, even as Arsenal prepared to return to the tower and figure out how to explain this to Jade.

* * *

Karen inched her way through the narrow air vent, hovering slowly to prevent her wings' trademark buzzing noise from reaching the ears of any possible onlookers. Granted it wasn't likely they'd assume that that annoying little bug they heard was a shrinking super heroine from Steel City flittering through the vent… but she wasn't going to take any chances.

Reaching a very cold vertical shaft, Karen realized she'd found the main air-conditioning pipeline for the whole building. And from her previously collected data, the top floor was where Anderson Taylor's office was. It was a long way up, but it was also safe to buzz here, so Bumblebee took off, hoping that Flamebird was making similarly unimpeded progress.

* * *

**  
I**t was such a long way down, Bette thought, pulling herself onto one of the narrow ledges of the building. The 'shadow' that Bette knew was the car she and Bumblebee had arrived in was now about the size of a quarter thanks to a few lucky grapple-gun shots. Flamebird examined the window behind her, which lead into a darkened office. There was apparently nobody inside, which was good for her. 

Flamebird pulled a birdarang from her belt, one of the specialized units designed for stealth missions, and used its concealed laser to slice a hole on the window big enough for her to crawl through. She came up by habit in a defensive stance and scanned the thoroughly, letting her eyes full adjust to the darkness before proceeding. Now that she was inside, she'd have to be especially careful. She figured she was on the fiftieth floor, or so, so she'd need to find an stairwell to reach the top and avoid night patrols or the overworked, underpaid employees pulling an all-nighter for the sake of keeping their job.

She slinked down a hall way, avoiding any bright areas or any places she heard human voices until she came to a stairwell…

Where a guard greeted her with a pair of wide eyes and two hands simultaneously reaching for his gun and his walkie-talkie. Flamebird sprung into action, using a birdarang to take out his gun-hand and then delivering a powerful kick to his head. He'd squeezed the walkie-talkie button, but not been able to say anything before she used a martial arts movie Nightwing had taught her to pull the guard into a joint lock and cause him to drop the device.

"Metahuman punk," the guard muttered, then swung at Bette. His fist caught her in the stomach, causing her to lose a bit of wind and fall back. Flamebird backed into the wall as the guard charged and then dug into the wall with the blades on her gauntlets, then lifted herself up and smashed both feet into the guard's face as he charged at her…

The guard staggered back, and she followed up by axe kicking the poor guy's head as he tried to get back on his feet.

"Sorry, no powers here," she spat, as he fell unconscious.

Bette took the batteries from his walkie-talkie and the clip from his gun before proceeding on up the stairs.

* * *

  
Karen used her Stingers to slice through the metal grating on the air vent in front of her and kicked it open. The grating fell into the room below, and Karen jumped out, reverting to her normal size as she landed. 

A quick scan of the room told her that she wasn't in the boss's office. The room she had fallen into was a very large room that might have been a meeting room, though there were no tables or desks. It was utterly empty devoid a few boxes in the corner. Yet it was carpeted, unlike your average storage room. Maybe it was in transition.

Karen slinked out into the hall outside, being careful not to make any noise. Finding nothing in the immediate vicinity resembling bureaucracy, Karen turned on several scanning systems in her helmet. A few scans of the area told her there was nothing using significant power or making noise on this floor, so she started to return to the vent she entered from…

When her visor picked up something odd. A section of the wall was a lot warmer than the wall around it, implying the presence of an air duct. But there was no vent, and there was no heat on this floor…

Bee carefully cut a small hole in the wall with her stingers and shrunk down to fit into it, making her way up the vent, small and unnoticed by anyone in the building so far. It seemed just like a man of Taylor's status to have a private climate control system devoted specifically to his own office, she thought.

She just hoped Bette was doing okay—otherwise this could get dangerous very quickly.

* * *

A quick nerve pinch had taken out the guard in the security room—the attack itself wouldn't have kept him out for long, but Flamebird had followed it up with a small dosage of a sleep-inducer with a long chemical name she couldn't pronounce. 

The room she'd found now gave her total access to the video monitor grid and intercom system of the entire building. And she was now seeing Bumblebee emerge from a small vent in the sealed-off section of the building—where Taylor's office was. Bette briefly wondered why, if Taylor was really a legitimate businessman, he'd need such absurd security in his building.

Then she realized the likelihood of him being legitimate was mind-numbingly low, given all they knew about him. Nightwing had dug up allegations of corruption from ages ago, made by a former employee. But before an investigation could be started, the man making the allegations had been killed in a traffic 'accident'…

Right.

Flamebird reached down and pressed a button below the monitor that showed Bumblebee. "Bird to Bee, Bird to Bee. Come in Bee," she said into the desk microphone.

Karen obviously heard the noise, because she hovered over to the intercom and, as a cockroach-sized figure, pressed the button. "Bee to Bird, I hear you. How did you get access to the building's intercom system? Are you sure nobody can hear us?"

"Yes on the second count. I'm in the guard's station—I knocked him out with some _Florochlorm_ and locked the door. I can see every room on this floor, floor seventy one."

"You're on the same level?" On the screen, Flamebird saw Bumblebee's head cock to the side, but it seemed to be for a different reason than their proximity.

"Yeah, but I had to go back outside and climb the building. There's only one elevator to the seventy-first floor, and it's guarded by four guys with Uzis in a well-lit corridor. They're all wearing sunglasses those fake-tuxedos that criminals constantly give their guards. It's like three or four floors down from here."

Karen shook her head on the screen, and then cocked it to the side again, this time with more alarm. "Someone's coming, kill the transmission!" Bee shrunk even further and flew up to the ceiling…

Sure enough, a man in a guard's uniform that had been waiting in another room walked in and looked around. He mouthed something into a walkie-talkie, and then turned and left. "Sorry," Flamebird whispered at nearly having got Karen caught.

Suddenly, Bumblebee was right in front of the security camera that viewed her room, talking into her Titan communicator, which was now built into her headgear. "Okay, Flamebird., no more intercom. Com-silence is off as long as you're sure you're alone. Guide me to Taylor's office via the monitors."

Flamebird pulled the Titan Com from her belt. Arsenal had explained to her previously that there was a new setting that literally read the vibrations straight from her throat and translated them to normal sound digitally. Karen could be speaking in a voice that was all but inaudible and still be understood on Flamebird's side of things. Better still, if she suddenly raised her voice, it would detect the change and turn the amplification down.

"Right…" She began punching in some keys on the control panel in front of her, and suddenly, every room on floor seventy-one was displayed, rather than the key locations in the building. Unfortunately, the image was a patchwork of locations, not arranged in the layout of the actual floor. "I'll do my best," she said. "This isn't as good as having floor plans would be, but at least it's only _one_ floor to work on. Even if it is larger than a football field. This _is_ a secure frequency, right?"

Bumblebee's voice grunted an affirmative. "We're transmitting scrambled on an out-of-use slice of AM bandwidth."

"Good. Now turn left when you leave that room and I'll take you from there."

* * *

Jade had taken the whole thing better than Arsenal had been expecting, but it was clear even know that she was frazzled as she left the police station that afternoon. She'd repeated the story she'd told the Titans the night of the Great Wall murders exactly as Roy had heard it before. Good memory of the events, at least. It was a sign she wasn't repressing them, and that eased Roy's fears about her reaction to the bloody night.

"So, Jade," he said. "It's 4PM, and I'm free this afternoon—not to mention starving. Care if I buy you some lunch? Least I can do after putting you through this again."

The young half-Asian woman looked up at him with a sweet smile. "That would be very kind of you, Mr. Arsenal."

"Heh," Roy laughed. "No, just call me Ro… I mean…" He sweatdropped. Had he almost just given her his name? "Call me Arsenal," he said, regaining his composure.

Jade nodded. "Alright, Arsenal. Where do you wish to eat? I refuse any place more expensive than you can afford."

Arsenal shrugged. "Well that rules out… Nowhere."

"What about that new restaurant… the one they call The Planet Krypton?" Jade asked, referring to the new restaurant chain named after Superman's destroyed home planet. All the waiters and waitresses dressed up as famous superheroes, giving the place a reputation for someone Herculean physical standards for their non-cooking employees. Not very unlike Hooters with superheroes. "I think the two of us would blend right in there."

Arsenal gave the young woman a grin. "Planet Krypton it is, then."

* * *

Bumblebee entered the picture at the bottom right of the screen on the top left, as Flamebird directed her into a room that showed her appear on the far right middle monitor, on the bottom of the screen. "Okay, seriously, Bee. This is getting tedious."

"At least you haven't ordered me around in circles more than twice," she muttered.

"Like I can help it," Flamebird snapped. "Look, I think you're almost—"

"There." Karen said, cutting her off.

Sure enough, Bee flew off the screen on the middle right and onto the screen two down and one left of dead center—where the company president Anderson Taylor was located. Be shrank herself even smaller, and flew right past the guard between the cracks in the door.

Flamebird switched the computer's display of the office itself—all twenty-seven monitors. You had to admire the tenacity of a man who installed twenty-seven security cameras in his office alone.

At any rate, Bee was barely a speck as she found a perch above the desk, where Taylor sat, reading over a report. It was definitely after-hours, but it wasn't beyond the timeline in which Flamebird had first heard the name Taylor while eavesdropping on Vasquez.

Bumblebee waited on the shelf a good ten minutes before the phone in Taylor's office finally rang, and she immediately aimed her sound-recording equipment at the man. "I'm piping you the audio too," she said. "Set your Titan Com to record it."

Flamebird did so, though a bit belatedly.

_"…is the transfer progressing?" came Taylor's voice. The response on the other end wasn't distinguishable as anything other than gibberish, but it was clearly the voice of Carmen Vasquez._

"_Very good, Mr. Vasquez," said the man with the shiny golden tooth. "I want you in the Garrison facility by sunrise tomorrow, overseeing the initial stages of chemical production."_

_More murmuring._

"_I'm aware of the Titans involvement. That's why my new employee is getting involved. Attrition has it's benefits. Attrition lost the States the war in Vietnam."_

"Attrition?" Flamebird whispered. "What's he talking about?"

"Ssh!" Bee warned her.

_Suddenly, on the monitor, Anderson Taylor glanced at his screen. "Vasquez, I believe this conversation is over. I have another matter to attend to."_

_Taylor replaced the phone on its receiver and reached over to a button near the phone, where a video monitor was located._

Flamebird switched to the security camera behind Taylor's desk, but couldn't make out the face on the screen..

But the voice…

_"Mr. Taylor!" shouted the guard that Flamebird had knocked out in the stairwell. "Problems! There's a meta-freak in the building! Knocked me out in the stairwell and took my walkie-talkie batteries…" And he went on to describe what Flamebird looked like._

"_WHAT!?" Taylor blurted, smashing a small lit-up button on the console with his fist.  
_

"Flamebird!" Karen hissed through the Titan Com. "What were you thinking!?"

Immediately an alarm system began to blare throughout the building, and Bette watched as all the windows were suddenly closed behind thick metal shutters. The building was going onto some kind of lockdown.

"_All guards be on alert!" shouted Taylor into his communicator, his voice a thunderous explosion of pent-up anger. "There is at least one costumed trespasser in this building. She is wearing red and gold and may have wings of some kind, and has already assaulted at least one guard. She and any others you encounter are not to leave this building. Use whatever force is necessary to subdue them!" _

Karen muttered a curse into the com-link. "Flamebird, building's on lockdown. The windows are closed. Head for the main exit—it's the only way out."

Bette nodded, and then glanced at the sleeping guard in the corner. Before she left the station, she propped him up against the console, his hand resting on the button that would purge the archives of footage and an incriminatingly empty bottle of Nyquil in his other.

* * *

Karen thought she would punch a wall—or maybe Flamebird's face—when they got back to the tower. How could she be so ignorant as to let a guard see her? Karen cursed as she blasted back under the door… and then one of the guards shouted at her…

"There, is that bug…?" one of them said, pointing.

"Shoot it!" The other interrupted.

Karen took up towards the ceiling, a spray of bullets whizzing by her tiny form, throwing off her flight path. Only two guards outside Taylor's office, but they were armed with the same Uzis as the ones that guarded the special elevator. Bee shot past the sprinkler, amazed to still be alive… A bullet whizzed right in front of her, even as water doused the two guards. She took off, more bullets zinging by.

Bee quickly turned, now flying upside down. She spun, even as she restored her normal size, and blasted two long-range stinger shots at full power into the guard on her right. At close range this would kill him, and even at this distance it blasted him back against the wall and zapped him unconscious—but it gave her some time. She landed while spinning her back toward the guard as she ran for the corner. Two bullets slammed into her back, knocking her forward and spurring her to run faster.

Now she was glad she'd upgraded her suit, more than ever.

* * *

Flamebird slammed into the first guard she encountered as he drew his pistol, pulling his gun-arm into a lock that caused him to drop the gun. It discharged, but the bullet only hit a copy machine, which Flamebird then judo-tossed the guard into.

She followed that up with a crushing elbow to the ribs, then a chop to the neck. The guard was out—and just in time, as another one came from around the corner, blasting at the teen with his Glock. Flamebird ducked behind the copy machine and drew a birdarang, which she then threw into the man's upper thigh as she emerged and ran down the hall.

A third guard entered the room, this one wielding only a nightstick, and Flamebird fell to the ground and slid between the man's wide gait. A bullet from the guard she'd hit with the birdarang slammed into the man's chest, and Flamebird punched him in the groin for good measure as she slid, then got up and ran. Another gunshot and the sickening feeling of blood spatter on the back of her cape and hair indicated that the she couldn't have put a birdarang in the _rectus femoris_ of a nicer guy—not if he was going to shoot his fellow employees in a vain attempt to get her.

Flamebird round the corner, where a bullet whizzed by her and anther slammed into her chest, knocking her backwards and down, but not penetrating the armor. Still hurt like hell.

But Bumblebee was also their, exchanging shots with the man, stinger versus gun. Stinger won in the end, and the man went down. Bee turned to Flamebird "Are you okay?"

"My sternum hurts like sin, but I can still run," she said.

Just then, the man with the birdarang in his leg limped around the corner, only to be blasted with a low-powered stinger-shot. He fell backwards now clutching his shoulder as well as his leg, and knocked himself unconscious against the wall.

"Let's go!" Flamebird said, reaching up to Bumblebee. Karen helped the younger Titan off the ground and both darted down the hall. Three more guards awaited them at the entrance to the elevator down… two of them shot at the girls with six-shooters and the other had a broken-off mop-handle. Apparently nightsticks weren't cutting it these days and guards felt the need to use sharp pointy objects on unsuspecting teenagers.

Bee got small on sight of the guards and flew an erratic pattern straight towards them—Flamebird dived out of the way of the bullets and hid behind a fichus long enough to draw a birdarang and use it against one of the guards.

While Bee turned her attention to the other gun-wielding guard, Flamebird charged the one with the mop handle. Unfortunately, she misjudged her attack and the guard managed to hit her across the forehead with the dull end. He jabbed at her with the sharp end, but missed. Then he stepped into her, using his greater mass to knock the young heroine down. Flamebird rolled as he poked at her again, feeling a sudden but tolerable pain as he cut into her exposed upper thigh with his weapon. Angered, Flamebird rolled back over, grabbing the mop handle with her legs and turning over and doing a pushup up on to her knees. This managed to tear the weapon loose from the guard's hand—it was now wedged between Flamebird's legs like a witch's broom, though now she was facing away from her opponent—not very smart…

Fortunately, neither was he: Bette heard him grunt as he swung at her with his fist. She rolled forward, coming up with her hands on the sharp end of the mop-stick and spinning around with the weapon in a baseball bat motion. The stick snapped in half across the guard's left temple, and she followed the strike up with a kick to the solar plexus that put the guard down for the count.

Both Titans quickly darted over to the elevator, but found that the call button had been destroyed, probably deliberately.

Bee pulled out her stinger and cut through the door of the elevator, and pulled Flamebird in with her. "It's key-operated," she observed…

Flamebird nodded, pulling a device from her belt. "Nightwing has his moments… Many of them."

The machine was a state-of-the-art lock-pick device that consisted of millions of tiny metallic rods that would extend until they met significant resistance, at which point they'd become rigid. When placed over a keyhole, they took the shape of the key inside it, and allowed the lock to be manipulated.

Even as the elevator came to life, Bee gasped when she saw Anderson Taylor heading down the corridor at the two girls, wielding a massive pistol….

* * *

  
Taylor ran when he saw the elevator start to lurch down, but he wasn't fast enough. Both girls slinked out of his sight…

And then an idea occurred to him. As soon as the elevator had passed, Taylor smirked, his golden tooth shining in the darkened hall. He aimed his gun at the steel chords that operated the elevator.

_**BLAM!  
**_

…

_**BLAM!**_

Seconds later the elevator hit rock bottom on the Sixty-Fifth floor, a loud metallic crash echoing up the shaft**  
**

* * *

The girls had just escaped the range of Carmen's gun when a shot rang out and the entire elevator lurched. 

"What was that!?" Flamebird blurted…

"Oh no…" Karen muttered. "Bette, grab on to me!"

"What!?"

"Just do it!"

Flamebird complied, wrapping herself around Bumble Bee's body; Karen jumped, just as second shot rang out… and the elevator descended into free fall. Her lower wings constrained by Flamebird's arms, it was all Bumblebee could do to slam through the service panel on top of the elevator with Bette in tow…

"_There's no goddamn spoon_!" Bumblebee cried, her teeth clinched under straiin and effort. The duo slammed into the wall of the elevator, Flamebird falling out of Karen's grasp and sliding against the wall, even as the falling elevator cord, severed by a bullet, smashed Bumblebee's left top wing in two.

"BUMBLEBEE!" Flamebird cried, her cape causing her to descend ever so-slightly slower. Nightwing's apprentice turned in the air, using the prongs on her gauntlets to catch onto the uneven sides of the elevator wall…

And then the ear-rending crash, followed by the sound of Karen's body slamming into the wreckage of the elevator.

"_NO!"_ spat Flamebird. "I'm going to kill you, Taylor!"

Then… impossibly, she heard a light moan from below…. And words.

"Not if I tear his head off first," came Bumblebee's voice.

"Huh? Bee! You're alive?" Flamebird goggled, realizing how her voice was full of relief.

"But not well," she said.

Flamebird needed to hear no more. She found her footing below and let herself fall a bit at a time, her arm muscles straining under the effort of keeping her from falling into the potentially sharp wreckage below, until she made it to where the wreckage was visible. It was bad, to be sure, and even seeing where she was going, Flamebird still ended up cutting her leg and scraping her arm making her way to the corner where Bumblebee was lying.

"What hurts?" she asked.

"What doesn't hurt?" Bee shot back.

Flamebird knelt by Bee and examined her left arm. Instantly she could tell it was dislocated, and informed the owner as much. It was also possibly broken, but Bette didn't mention that.

Bette helped Karen sit up. "At least we're not dead."

Bee just nodded and pressed a button on her belt, causing her wings to vanish back inside her costume. "Those are no good now, and neither is my arm." Bee pressed a few more buttons on her belt control panel and then her face became a mask of pain as the armor on the left arm pulled itself into a very specific position across her chest and locked up.

"Best if it moves as little as possible."

Flamebird turned and looked up. "We're not out of this yet. I hear someone coming…" Sure enough, footsteps were echoing outside the elevator. "We still have sixty-something more floors to escape,"

"No, we don't," said Bumblebee. "Listen. No more alarm. The building is off lockdown because Taylor thinks he killed us."

Bee stuck her stinger in her holster and picked up the one that had been in her now-useless left hand. "We just have to find a window. I can shrink us both enough that your capes will break our fall."

Suddenly, the doors above them lurched open, an uncomfortable amount of light flooding into the room…

One of the four Tuxedo Guards looked in… Only to get blasted in the chest by a stinger beam. Flamebird jumped up diving in the direction the guard had flown, even as Bumblebee jumped off her shoulder and blasted a second guard with her stinger. Flamebird sliced into the hand of the third guard with a birdarang as he went for his Uzi, and then punched the guy, turning and grabbing him in a painful elbow lock from behind—the smart fighter's equivalent of a full nelson…

And guard four swatted Bumblebee out of the way and unloaded his clip on Flamebird—through the torso of his companion. Blood and viscera in addition to the bullets splattered all over Bette's costume, even as the bullets (though slowed down by their trip through the guard's body) drove her back into a water tank. Her torso felt like it was on fire, and she couldn't really tell if anything had penetrated or not thanks to all the blood that was now on her costume…

"You sick son of a..!" Karen shouted, zapping him in the back of the neck with her stinger as a tiny self…and then growing so fast the beam consumed the man's head and caused it to explode.

"Holy cuss!" Flamebird blinked through her pain… "You killed him!"

"Moment of weakness," Karen spat, "let's get out of here before I have to do it again."

Flamebird just gaped at her leader, not sure if the blood on her costume or the blood they'd had to shed that night grossed her out more. She followed her leader down the hall, where Bee blasted open a window with one arm, then told Flamebird to get ready for a very weird feeling…

Both teens shrank down, and rode Bette's hang glider-like cape to the relative safety of the streets.

* * *

Anderson Taylor found himself staring at the wreckage of the elevator to his floor from the bottom this time, having gone through the service lift on the roof down to the ground floor and back up to floor sixty-five. He was used to long nights, but this… this was ridiculous.

He turned and looked at the remaining guards. "None of the survivors upstairs know who the two that attacked us were. I was not wearing my glasses when saw them escape this floor. And the security camera recordings were all conveniently deleted." His tone was terse, as if expecting a solution. Right now.

"I know who it was, boss," said one of the surviving Tuxedo Guards. His name was Johnson, if Taylor could be bothered to remember it correctly. "One was the leader of the Titans East, Bumble Bee… or Honey Bee, one or the other. The other was Nightwing's brat out in Bludhaven, Flamebird, I think."

Taylor nodded. "This is helpful. I want you to testify that they brutally slaughtered these men when questioned by the police, and made no effort to use non-lethal force."

"Boss… they'll never believe that."

Taylor just gave the guard his sickening gold-toothed smile. "Nobody has to truly believe you two. I merely have to plant the suggestion in people's heads. Fear will do the rest."

And with that, Taylor left.

* * *

  
The bitter cold air bit at Arsenal's face as he and Jade watched a barge, loaded to the brink with the city's namesake steel, float on lazily down the river. Roy had bought himself and Jade jackets after their meal together at Planet Krypton, and decided that he'd look into getting a new winter suit designed for himself. A sleeveless vest might cut it in Jump City or Star City, but Steel City was a whole different ball game.

Roy exhaled a deep breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding until he noticed how visible it was in the cold night air, and looked down at Jade. She still looked gorgeous, he thought. But that's not what he began talking about.

"It's sad really. This place was once beautiful… and then all this mining, all this industrialization turned it into this." After a beat, he shook his head. "Listen to me, I sound just like… Green Arrow. Yeah, it sucks that the environment got destroyed here, but this is isn't the only place in the nation. And you can bet the planet will outlast any cities we puny humans can construct."

Jade simply smiled and inched a bit closer to him. "There is nothing wrong with caring about the environment, my friend." Now she was leaning on him; the warmth of her body against his caused Roy's face to flush with blood. He wasn't cold anymore.

"I know. It's not that I don't care. I just don't want to fall into the trap of caring so much I can't see the forest for the trees." He let a beat pass. "Or lack thereof in this case."

Jade let out a few chuckles. "That was funny."

Her smile was radiant enough that it forced Arsenal to return it. "If you say so."

"I've… enjoyed this evening," Jade said after a bit… "You think maybe we could… do this again one day?" her light accent only made the awkwardness of the question even more endearing, somehow.

"I guess…" Arsenal looked down and saw something in her deep green eyes… a longing to do something. And it wasn't rocket science, what she wanted. And suddenly, against his better judgment, Roy found he wanted it to. He leaned down and allowed her to press her lips to his. A jolt wracked his body, as he was assaulted by feelings he hadn't experienced in far too long… The smell of jasmine in her hair, the taste of her tangerine lip gloss—it was… energizing.

The kiss only lasted seconds, but they continued to embrace for warmth—and maybe something more—even after it had ended.

Roy thought of muttering something about how they shouldn't have done that… but he didn't. He was no longer cold at all. He felt like he was burning up, and instead just nodded at her, then diverted his gaze to the ground. As if it were more interesting.

"Will you walk me home?" Jade said after a moment of awkward silence.

"I'd be glad to," Roy said.

* * *

At a conference the next morning, Aqualad had called the attention of all the Titans to a security camera recording from the previous night. A night-shift attendant at a service station had been murdered—and the murder was caught on camera.

Sort of.

The recording showed the young man leaving the station, and suddenly stopping as a dark blur blasted by him. It was only there for a second…

And then the man's body fell apart into a mess of gore and organs, blood covering the ground where he had once been. If it had been a color recording, it probably would have made Bumblebee hurl.

"Jut a blur…" she said, staring at the recording. "Cut to pieces in super-speed. What a way to go." Her arm was still in a sling after what had happened in Taylor's elevator.

Flamebird, nursing her own cuts and bruises—including thirteen separate pelts on her torso from the hale of gunfire she'd taken—took a seat at the computer. "Please, oh please, Dick," she whispered, "let what you taught me pay off."

The tape played back again, this time a bit more slowly. This time it became evident that there was at least one frame in which a shiny object appeared over the man at same time as the blur.

Flamebird manipulated the controls, and the computer zoomed in on that video. She applied a filter to delete light-bloom… and found that the object seemed to be the hovering blade of a knife.

A bowie knife, to be exact. Held in a hand that seemed to be clad in a glove patterned after the nighttime sky.

Mas and Menos gasped, and all attention was suddenly turned to them. "What, do you guys know who this is?" Roy asked.

"_ Sí_…" said Menos…

Mas finished. "_Él es_ _M…**Medianoche**_!"


End file.
